Ocean Nora
by KathleenDee
Summary: Maura decides to start kissing Jane.
1. Chapter 1

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose and moved her hands to run up the sides of her cheeks to massage her temples in efforts to seize another eye spasm. This case had taken turn after turn after turn and now upon receiving legal privilege to go through the victim's bank records she might as well have been in one of those marble mazes TJ was always playing where there was no real start or no real beginning, all that mattered was how you tilted it and when you got bored.

"…. Super market…online subscription…Petland…" She began mumbling as she scrolled through with just the right amount of attention needed to catch something suspicious. This one was a twenty two year old college girl found near the highway and once seeming fairly simple to solve with the right amount of time and leg work had turned into a two month investigation and every judge in town was away on some sort of legal conference that she had been waiting three whole days to get access to this bank account. The bureaucracy of it all infuriated her, but what pressed deeper under the detectives skin right now was that she hadn't found a damn thing since to help make the bank records search even fruitful. She had been shooting fish in a bucket and been missing every time. It happened sometimes, but not to her.

She blamed Maura really.

The Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had taken a trip with her mother Constance to see some special opening of some special art with paperclips, at least that's what Jane gathered when the ME came to her almost bursting with excitement a week ago. That was of course before this case grew ice cold and before Jane helped her pack, and before the night where she stayed over to drop the other woman off at the airport, and before Maura took her hand at the terminal and kissed her gently before going onto the security line and waving as if it happened every day,

It most certainly didn't happen every day.

But it had happened before, once. Jane reached for her now cold cup of coffee from Boston Joe's on her desk as she recalled the night at the Dirty Robber a month ago, they had been celebrating a win, she couldn't remember which and whether that had something to do with the homicide rate in Boston or the honey blonde's effect on her train of thought Jane wasn't ready to debate. She and Maura had got into a drinking game over how many times Korsak would tell a particular story that night that started with "In the good ol' days" and it led to them inevitably drinking a little more than usual and stumbling out of the bar holding on to one another and giggling like school girls.

It had been in thanks for walking her home. Maura explained after she pressed a small and gently kiss on the taller woman's lips before retreating into her home and leaving the detective surprised and blushing uncontrollably on her way home. She was embarrassed at her drunken thoughts of Maura's soft lips that tasted like the red wine she had been drinking. She had never thought it at all would change things between them; it had been done in a way that was so utterly Maura that Jane hadn't seen it out of place at all.

But she had thought about it though.

Way more than she would admit and if she were being honest with herself she were glad for the space away from the corky woman. That was until the airport a week ago, where she did it again, quite soberly too.

Jane couldn't really think about anything else, and as her case grew colder and the hours passed until her best friend's flight returned she was left feeling just a bit emotionally overwhelmed, that was of course before Frankie called two hours ago saying their father was due in town in two days to go over his estate planning, whatever that meant.

Korsak paused as he entered the office dressed casually in jeans and a blue sweater. He sighed heavily in disappointment at the tall woman bent over looking at her computer screen too preoccupied to notice him even walk in. "Do I have to pull rank for you to go home? It's Saturday night Rizzoli!"

At the sound of his voice Jane hopped up in her chair and grinned sheepishly. "I'm not here."

Korsak put the bag of assorted mini donuts down on his desk. "Why? I gave you the weekend off. Don't you have to pick up Maura tomorrow morning?" He crossed his arms.

Jane rolled her eyes. "I don't know why you are talking to yourself. I'm not here." She paused and gave him a once over. "Wait a minute why are you here? I thought by not being here on a Saturday night I could not run into everyone else because they wouldn't be here either."

Korsak shifted under the detective's intense gaze and then finally shrugged as he made his way around to sit at his desk. With a stubby finger he punched the bottom to turn on his desktop computer and then crossed his arms. Jane was still studying him. "I like to get my best work done in quiet."

"With a big ol' bag of powdered donuts? Yeah right. Gimmie one." She snapped out of her seat and lunged for the paper bag. Korsak watched her grab hold of a donut as if it were the first food she had seen all day, something he didn't really doubt and as Jane got powdered sugar all over herself and the front half of his desk he smiled. Though he continued to push the date back he knew he'd have to retire sooner rather than later, but he would miss the day to day with Jane Rizzoli immensely. Jane caught his fatherly eye and began to chew slower. "The wife know you're here eating donuts?" She wiped off her hands in the sides of her jeans and then realized that she had only spread the powder more.

Korsak watched her attempt to clean off all effected surfaces before responding. "No, well…about the donuts."

Jane reached into a bag wot grab another one with a smile in thanks and sat back down at her desk. "Well I'm not here. Your secret's safe with me."

"I ran into Frankie on the way in?"

Jane raised an eyebrow. "Ah c'mon, he's here too?" Korsak nodded and Jane looked back to her screen. "Well if he's here Nina is here. I need someone to help me with all of this." She brushed off her screen of transactions with a dismissive grunt before reaching for her cold coffee again.

"You should listen to me sometimes. I know what I'm doing." He pressed lightly.

Jane looked over her shoulder. "Not one stitch of evidence, Korsak, it's been months and nothing. One day she's starting a new semester, the next she's naked dead on the freeway… it doesn't make sense."

"You need to come at it with a fresh mind."

"I need to solve it."

He jiggeled the mouse on his desk to open a few files of his own before looking over at Jane, she was clad in comfortable jeans sneakers and a simple red v-neck but her posture just read burnt out. If he were going to retire he had to know that he was leaving his detectives in the best shape possible. Something was bothering her on a grander scale and he was sure it had something to do with everyone seemingly moving forward and her being stuck in case after case. She had turned down the full time FBI position for good reason, one he was sure she'd never admit to him, and they still wanted to court her as a guest lecturer but that accomplishment wouldn't matter if she didn't learn how to appreciate what free time she did get. "If you don't get up in an hour and eat a real dinner I'm suspending you."

Jane looked up from her screen and thought better of her playful retort. "You sound like Maura." She grumbled instead as she brought her attention back to the screen.

"How's she enjoying the city of lights anyway?" Korsak asked as he settled on a document that needed his revision for the Commissioner before reaching into the bag of donuts and pulling out another donut.

Jane shuffled some papers around on her desk distractedly. "Old buildings lights, art, wine, smelly cheese, I don't think she'll come back honestly."

Korsak chuckled to himself. "I'd like to travel more. Kiki is talking about taking a trip to Thailand, can you believe it? Me, in Thailand."

Jane smiled a little to herself. "Yeah, no donuts there though,"

"Well it's a new experience which I hear retirement is all about." They talked back and forth for a little as they worked before falling into a comfortable silence.

Jane finally knew there was nothing more she could pull from the victim's financials. Hell at twenty two she barely had a savings account herself. With a sigh she looked down at her scribbled notes. It wasn't a complete waste of time, but she couldn't follow up on any of these small leads until Monday morning. The Boston native tossed back the rest of her coffee and checked the time. Thai food and a ball game sounded like a good way to spend the night. Maura's flight came in at nine the next morning and with airport traffic she would need to be out the door by seven. Jane shuffled all the papers on her desk into the top drawer and then holstered her weapon. "Monday morning I think we'll need to call in that highway gate attendant officer for another go."

Korsak looked up. "You like him for it?"

She pulled her jacket on. 'I like him for knowing something. It doesn't add up how he was on his shift and saw nothing until the motorist did. Our victim had a parking ticket a few days prior that she paid off, maybe that's how our unsub found his victim?"

"Well then you certainly are in trouble."

Jane chuckled and waved goodbye before slipping into the elevator hoping to be able to leave without having to communicate with anyone else. Before the detective knew it she was waking up on her couch with a jolt. "Shit!" she cursed in response to the half empty beer bottle that slipped off of her coffee table in the movement and toppled to the floor. "Oh for the love of—" Her cell phone had fallen with it and was miraculously still ringing in the small but steady growing puddle of IPA. Jane quickly reached for it as she tried to adjust the take out container of chicken pad see ew on her lap. "Rizzoli."

There was a pause. "Jane?"

Jane took a handful of small napkins that came with her take out and tossed onto the puddle of beer after picking up the bottle. "Maura, hey."

There was a small chuckle on the other end. "What just happened?"

Jane looked around her immediately surrounding to try and find something to sop the rest of the spilt beer with, it had alreay started to bleed into her beige rug. "I just dropped a bottle…"

"Well you sound rather far away."

"I dropped my phone too…" She tossed an old shirt onto the ground and sighed when she realized she would in fact have to get up to clean it properly. It was times like this especially that she missed Jo Friday, that dog would eat anything. "I didn't screw it up right?" She got up. "Your flight is in tomorrow morning right?"

Maura sat back down on her hotel bed. "Oh no, tomorrow, you're correct. I'm glad that you'll be driving. I may need help with my luggage again. I bought new case that is wonderful—"

Jane was rifling through her linen closet. "Wait a new suitcase? Maura you left with four."

"This one is exquisite, wait until you see it, Jane."

The detective chuckled to herself. "I hope exquisite isn't heavy."

Maura remained amused. "Did you receive my post card? I sent one two days ago." She kicked her bare feet up and regarded the polish, maybe after a nice soak she would re-do them. She wanted to catch Jane before she went to sleep though. The trip with her mother had been just what they needed, and the art and food was simply to die for, but she was reminded of Jane often, and the experiment she had started with herself to embrace change had been on her mind.

Jane was padding gently at the beer stained rug with one hand while the other held her phone. "This case has been preoccupying me, sorry I haven't checked the mail today. I bet it's there."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed.

Jane bit the inside of her lip when she realized the beer had come out as much as it could. "It's just off that there is no evidence, y'know?"

Mura nodded. "I understand your frustration. Kent emailed me a few reports that were troubling him and it just doesn't seem real, but we have been very thorough I assure you."

"Maur, c'mon. Is it possible for you not to be thorough?"

"It's not in my nature but anything is possible."

She sat back on her couch and regarded the muted baseball game. The line was quiet a moment. "Sox are losing…."

"Oh are they playing those Aquatics?"

Jane furrowed a brow. "You mean the Marlins?"

Maura chuckled. "Oh, right yes them."

"No Miami is out this year. We are playing the Nationals."

"Ah yes, Washington DC."

"Correct Doctor."

"When will you bring me to another game?"

Jane put her socked feet on the coffee table and reclined. "When you learn the team names and don't embarrass me by wearing a brand new baseball cap every time."

"How am I to know what color scheme I'm going to wear and if that opposing team matches?"

Jane sighed but smiled at her honest question. "Maura that's the thing, the only color you need to match with is red."

"Sometimes it's so loud."

"That's the only team you are allowed to support." She reached for the new beer she grabbed on the way back from her linen closet and took a sip. "Did you donate those other team hats to charity like you said you would?"

"I don't understand team sport fans." She got up from her hotel bed and began gathering the new lathers she had purchased that day for her bath. "The mindset resembles that of a cult follower. Unyielding to see reason…"

"Not an answer, Dr. Isles."

"I did I'll have you know."

"Alright see? Progress."

"I had a lot of fun the last time."

Jane was half paying attention now. "The last time we went to a game?—Really? His foot touched the plate!"

Maura started running the water. "Yes, it was nice." They had gone on a clear Saturday months ago before the off season and a couple of times the year before with Frankie. This time was nice though, it wasn't like television baseball Jane who had the attention span of a four year old. Ballpark baseball Jane went through all the rules, and was eager to make sure Maura was having a good time and always, always bought her a hotdog, even after she insisted on telling her about what nitrates could do to one's system.

Jane's eyes darted at the innings left and then the score. She took another sip of her beer; maybe they could make a comeback after all. When the hell did the Nationals get so good anyway? "Alright Maura then we will go again."

"Just the two of us?" She opened a lavender silk bath bomb and placed it into the warm claw foot tub before removing her robe.

"…Yeah, sure."

Maura settled herself among the lavender and made a small noise of pleasure. She was excited to get back to Boston but also was going to miss the constant pampering here in Paris. She rested her head back on a warm folded towel and sighed. "Alright then it's a date."

Something about the word date brought Jane back to attention. She rubbed at her chin briefly before sitting back into her couch. "Like a date date?" It wasn't what she intended to say but it was what fumbled out. She could hear Maura chuckle.

"As in a date on the calendar, Jane. Unless you prefer to ask me out on what you call a date date, that would save me a lot of anxiety."

"Anxiety?"

Maura colored a little at the cheeks. "Well you did not kiss me back at the airport."

Jane could be watching professional wrestling now for all she knew. Leave it to Maura to bring this up now. "I-you-um-it's, Maura." She put a hand through her long black mane and looked back to the darkened spot on the rug where she had spilt beer. "I thought that was a French thing."

Maura shrugged gently in the tub, her cheeks were full and red but her tone remained normal. "It was."

Jane shook her head. "So… Then what does that mean?"

She switched the phone to her other hand. "It's an expression of love and affection, Jane. Both of which I have for you and socially here in France it's completely acceptable."

"We were in Boston both times."

"You remember then?" She sounded surprised. The next morning after tending to her hangover she visited Bass at the zoo and told him all about it. She was sure she looked crazy, but she wanted to share what giving into her impulses had yielded, and how it both confused and liberated her. She was sure Jane wouldn't remember.

Jane's cheeks began to flush. "Yeah…"

"Well that makes you not kissing me back worse then doesn't it?"

Jane shook her head. "How? We're best friends…I feel the same way about you but you just don't go around kissing your friends Maura."

"If it's because I'm a woman—"

"I don't kiss Korsak."

"Well that's different; he's your direct report, Jane."

"I don't kiss any of the guys in the bowling league."

The medical examiner wrinkled her nose in amusement. "I would hope not, they're grotesque."

"But they're my friends."

Maura thought about it logistically. "I admit that since the Robber I've wanted to see what it would be like again. Didn't you like it?" She asked curiously. She had kissed women before, no one like Jane though, at least she realized just then that she didn't need an excuse to kiss any of those young women in college, but with Jane she had created one right? If only to tease the detective, but did it stem from sort of internal fear? Maura Isles felt perfectly comfortable with the idea of kissing her best friend, but the idea of kissing Jane as a romantic partner began to worry her. She couldn't tell where one intention stopped and the other started.

"I mean…. Yeah I liked it…" Jane was tired and really wasn't sure what they were talking about now. "If I had known this was what you were doing I would have— You know I'm not—Is this some kind of test?" She finally settled on.

The pathologist laughed and pushed about some suds in her bath as if to mentally wipe her spiraling thoughts clean. "No, Jane I simply wanted to do it, and in the spirit of my new meditation practices that I was telling you about I want to give in to positive feelings. You make me feel positive."

"So you're gonna do it again?

"Possibly."

"Well don't I have a say in this?"

"You don't want me to?"

"I mean…no, it's confusing."

"What's confusing about it?"

"Well…" She was up and pacing slowly about her living room. "If you're just doing it to feel good and not because you mean it—"

"Of course I mean it, Jane."

"God, Maura just—it's not that literal."

She shook her head. The bath bomb creating light purple hurricane patterns in the water in front of her was at its end. "Romantically you mean."

"Yes. I mean we've been through a lot together and…I do feel things for you as my best friend, um, but, don't you think it's just a little odd?" How could she approach something so intimate so nonchalantly.

"The first time I did."

"Not the other day at the airport?"

"No, Jane that felt perfectly natural." She shrugged almost shyly. "I was going to miss you, I have missed you. Is it that strange of an expression?"

She plopped back on her couch. "No but… it would mean things." She played with the draw string of her navy blue BPD sweat pants. "It would mean something different right… about you, about me?"

"Not necessarily."

Jane groaned softy. "So are you going to start kissing my mom too?"

"Angela? Maybe."

"Maura." She could hear the woman laughing. "I hope you know you're giving my an ulcer with all this kissing talk."

Maura was still chuckling. "Okay, so how about we let it be until you come to a meditation class with me, you'll see what I mean by embracing changes and giving in to positive feelings. Please Jane."

"You haven't even been back and you are asking me to go to some meditation thing with you already?"

"It will be good for you."

"Did you forget what happened the last time we tried to do something like this?"

"No one told you to put on some woman's shoes."

Jane smirked. "I'll tell you what, you help me solve this case in forty eight hours and I will go with you to this meditation thing."

Maura seemed to like the challenge and had agreed before claiming to begin to prune and needing to attend to other things before meeting up with her mother again. They said goodnight and Jane sat on her sofa reflecting on the pure ridiculousness of the conversation. If she really allowed herself to think about it though something had been gradually changing between them for a little while now and her thoughts surrounding the medical examiner had been manipulative to say the least. Jane found herself confused by her jealously, or muted by her own acts of chivalry. It only became more apparent when she turned down the FBI position that everyone was sure she was going to take or as of most recently when Maura would respond to her using a different script. Saying little things or doing things that led Jane to believe she could feel the change too and was offering to carry a weight Jane could not.

Jane reached for her beer and un-muted the tv. She didn't like the idea of Maura carrying extra on her behalf, and she most certainly didn't like the idea of the Washington Nationals becoming a force this season. With a tip of her bottle she polished off the beer and flipped through the stations until she found Animal Planet. A documentary on tortoises. "Of course" Jane smiled softly a she watched Bass as a baby wondering about looking for food and shelter for thirty minutes before falling back to sleep.

 **AN: Just a little something I started on my sick day off from work today. What do you guys think?**

 **KathleenDee**


	2. Chapter 2

Jane pressed her palms together in efforts to stop her hands from reflecting her minds activity. A case had come in around five that morning, Dispatch said they couldn't get a hold of the Detective on call Henric Riley, Jane wasn't surprised, but considering she slept on her couch the night before and probably wasn't able to get back to sleep she took it. It was a lead on a missing persons, nothing she couldn't handle, nothing that would ever grace her desk, unless that person was found dead of course. She'd write up her notes and drop it on Riley's desk the next morning. It distracted her long enough to buy a cup of coffee and pull into the International Arrivals terminal at Logan.

There was nothing on the radio she cared for, all her mirrors were adjusted…

Jane drummed her slender fingers along the steering wheel before shaking her head. She reached for her coffee and decided with a great deal of adolescent pleasure that she didn't have to make up her mind about how she felt because it was Sunday, and all that other bullshit could wait couldn't it? She was excited to see her best friend, and that she was focusing on. Not that she had worn the suit Maura liked her in most to the call because she knew she wouldn't have time to change before she picked her up at the airport. Or that she had received yet another email from the FBI's Human Resource Bot asking her to complete her file for review so that the psychological evaluation could be scheduled for her contracted classes. Or that her father would be in town soon no doubt stomping all over the family balance that they created over the years. Or that she admitted to liking kissing her best friend who she was half certain would do it again because that was Maura; she did the things she liked and seldom really asked for consultation on the matters, except this time Jane was the matter, and what was the matter anyway? Maura was beautiful, charming in her own goofy way… a woman.

Jane shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

Who was she really kidding though? She had such a love for Maura, she knew it wasn't normal, or at least hadn't grown to be placed in some category or the other. It was organically their own thing that couldn't be matched, she had no idea what would even attempt to match against it.

The Detective checked her watch again and sighed. "What are you doing?" She wondered aloud as she reached for her coffee to take another sip. Maura had texted her that she had landed ten minutes ago, and in reality Jane wasn't really bothered, but at least she could effectively hide whatever had just happened to her stomach behind her annoyance.

Why couldn't anything just stay still for one moment so she could grip onto it long enough to understand?

Caught in her thoughts Jane had almost missed Maura stepping out onto the curve clad in a beige rain coat, black heels and a green dress. Her hair was down cascading in different hues of honey and catching the sunlight as she slowly detailed the car path. Jane honked her horn to get her attention before hopping out.

"Maura!"

The ME's face lit up as Jane strode toward her. "Jane! Hello." She couldn't help but smile widely; nothing about landing had signified quite the exact homecoming that Jane did.

Jane smiled back. "Hi." She greeted back as they wrapped their arms around each other in a warm hug.

"Gun and a badge too?" Maura chuckled as she brought Jane at arm's length to examine her fully. "This suit is so becoming, Jane. You look lovely, but fierce." She smiled up at her as she tugged gently at the suit's jacket lapels. "You're welcome." She had made Jane buy it a year ago after tricking her into going shopping.

Jane looked down to what she was wearing and laughed. "Yeah, I'll be able to pay it off in four years…the blazer I mean. The pants I'll have to leak my pension for. Thanks." She swatted playfully at the hand Maura had just used to touch her cheek and brush something off her shoulder. "Stop it."

Maura shook her head with a dismissive smile. "Do I need to change? Did we get a call?"

Jane began to wheel her carryon bag toward her unmarked car. "Riley was MIA this morning, I took in a MP…" Jane paused and finally realized what had been off to her since approaching her friend, "Maura?"

Maura was preoccupied looking for her cell phone in her bag. If she had missed an important call from dispatch she would have liked to know about it. "Jane?"

Jane looked between the leather wheeling bag and her preoccupied friend. "This isn't your only bag right? There is no way this is your only bag."

Maura looked up. "Of course not Jane. I could hardly carry my shoes in this."

"Well where are all your other bags?"

She continued to rummage through her purse. "Robert said it would be about another ten minutes to unload—ah ha!" She retrieved her cell phone. "I know I'm technically still off but I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss an important message. I already have emails coming in."

Jane pressed the button on her car keys to pop the trunk of her unmarked open. She'd need to move the shot gun and bullet proof vests aside she supposed. Even though she had wrestled all of the other woman's bags onto the curb a week ago for the life of her she couldn't remember how big they were. "Robert?" Jane asked as she fit the carryon bag into the trunk strategically.

Maura nodded as she caught up on the email she had been referencing. "Yes, our pilot, Jane. Extremely handsome, we got to talking during the flight; aviation is that much more interesting in flight, who knew." She chuckled at herself as she scanned the email she had just received from Kent on supplies for the lab.

Jane closed the trunk and looked around them. "Do I need one of those?" She pointed to the line of luggage carts near the accessibility wheelchairs for the airport.

Maura slipped her cell phone back into her purse now satisfied with having caught up. "There seems to be two sizes." She pointed out.

Jane looked at her fined with disbelief. "Maura you need the big one." The fact that she was even debating this blew Jane's mind. The smaller option looked like a toy compared to the larger one and she was sure this new addition to Maura's luggage collection had at least five pounds on her.

The blonde pursed her lips together in thought. "It's hard to tell the real surface space from here…"

Jane began toward them. "C'mon, maybe _Robberrt_ will help me carry your shoes back to the car."

Maura chuckled and was just able to grab her arm to link and walk with her. "I don't think he will."

"I don't think so." Jane agreed with a laugh caught in her throat.

"Thank you." Her hazel eyes brimmed with appreciation and Jane shrugged as they neared the luggage carts.

"Don't mention it, Maura." It was bashful.

"Let's hurry though. I smuggled back the most amazing cheese."

"Cop, Maura." She reminded as she let the shorter woman guide the baggage cart along.

"What is illegal is us not having access to fromage l'Trappe here." Between the two of them they were able to wrangle Maura's four additional suitcases onto the baggage cart and into Jane's unmarked car. The detective had finally hopped into the driver's seat and buckled up as Maura continued to google mouth about pasteurization which for some reason lead to a rant on fermentation. It didn't take a detective to know her friend had probably been stifled of her talents while with Constance, a woman who thought Maura's scientific rambles were unbecoming and not endearing, and besides Constance knew everything anyway.

"So where is Connie?" Jane asked mid maceration and holding vessels.

Maura paused and seemed to realign her thoughts. "She had work in Dijon, she sends her love."

"Does it bite?"

Maura shook her head. "No, of course not Jane." When the Detective looked over at her she sent her a knowing smile as if to say that it was okay she knew she wasn't being literal. "I think we needed this trip."

Jane sighed as she came to meet bumper to bumper traffic leaving the airport. "Yeah? I think so too. I'm glad you enjoyed it." Jane reached for her aviators and slipped them onto her face to block the glare from the sun in front of them.

"It was truly lovely; you have to come next time."

Jane shook her head. "And interrupt Mommy and Me time? Never."

Maura smiled. "I have at least a terabyte of pictures to show you and Angela but—"

"A wha?"

"A terabyte… One thousand and twenty four gigabytes…" Jane blinked. "It's just over a trillion bytes of memory."

"Oh right yes, now I understand."

Maura smiled and sat back in her seat. "You know your sarcasm is telling." Jane sighed and sent her friend an apologetic look. "I was going to say that I will want you full attention for each byte, there was so many things that made me think of you both but I want to know what I missed first." Maura tapped Jane's knee playfully. "Why are you so grumpy?"

"I'm not grumpy."

"You seem it."

"Are you guessing?"

"No, it's an observation."

"Well I'm not grumpy."

"Moderately agitated."

Jane nodded. "Just tired Maura."

"You didn't go to sleep after we spoke? It had to be late here." Concern wrinkled her brow.

Finally traffic began to move at a pace acceptable to the homicide detective. "I watched this documentary on Bass." She recalled the baby tortoise taking hours to find a little whole to climb into to sleep. It was the last things she remembered before waking up that morning with a back ache and a beer soaked rug.

"You wait until I'm across the world to watch a documentary on my favorite forensic anthropologist?" Maura shook her head. "I'm shocked Jane Rizzoli."

Jane laughed. "Maura, the turtle—tortoise, excuse me."

"Oh…" She shifted in her seat and tried to register her emotions and appropriate them. "Well they are very fascinating creatures."

"Cute little things, yeah…"

She nodded. "I still have George Herman when you're ready to resume full custody."

Jane glanced at her friend guiltily. George Herman Ruth was what Jane had named the baby tortoise Maura had bought her to keep her company after her old apartment was trashed for the first time. Upon inspection on his wellbeing months later Maura revoked ownership and was nursing the little runt at her own home. He was only a pointer finger bigger now than before, but research and experience had taught her that he would hit a growth spurt in about five years. "C'mon Maura I really thought he could eat those little carrots. How long you gonna hold this over my head?"

"He was a baby. He barely had teeth."

"Well you better keep him" she shrugged. "It's clear I'm not good at relationships animal or otherwise."

"Is this about Casey?" Maura pressed lightly. She wouldn't ever it, but Maura knew Jane still harbored feelings of disappointment within herself about the miscarriage.

"No."

"Are you moderately agitated about Frankie and Nina?"

"What? No, I'm really happy for them, Nina is great for Frankie, and he needs to settle down already and have kids so Ma can stop looking at me." Jane pointed at Maura then in warning. "I'm only slowing down long enough to roll you out of the car Maura, she won't stop bothering me about wedding planning."

Maura chuckled softly before pouting when she looked at her feet. "No, I'm not wearing the right shoes, Jane."

Jane couldn't help but wear a wiry grin at that. "Alright I'll come to a complete stop, but the engine will be running."

"Don't you want to get brunch?" Oddly enough she hadn't even considered the fact that Jane had other things to do today until then. She felt just a little embarrassed by the assumption but decided to lean into that embarrassment. Another part of her meditations was to lean into things that were not harmful but made her uncomfortable, being embarrassed was one.

Jane tried to think of a reason why she couldn't which was especially confusing because with the pathologist back she finally felt as if a certain balance was restored in her life. Just being around the shorter woman made her happy, and she'd be a fool to pretend to not know it.

"Now that I'm back in America I suddenly have the urge to consume red meat and wear denim." She joked. "A steak and egg breakfast at Pomeroy? What do you say?"

Jane nodded, because she couldn't really say no to Maura and Maura knew that. "Is that before or after I lug all of your bags back into your house and get roped into looking at invitation cardstock because Nina is wise enough to stay across town where Ma can't sink her teeth into her?"

"After." Maura smiled confidently.

 _ **Three Hours Later**_

"Oh my goodness, this pattern looks divine!" Maura leaned forward to examine it. "Is it lace?"

"Isn't it just the cutest little thing? Janie what do you think? Do you think Nina would like this?" Angela held up a doily to her daughter who was sitting on the couch looking at the ceiling with her eyes closed. "Jane, can you see it from there?"

Jane groaned into her hands. "Maura…."

"Oh Jane we'll only be a moment more. I put out some of that cheese for you."

"It smells like feet." She whined as she flattened her hands on her legs. She was going to die here, they were going to forget about her and she was going to die here on Maura's couch.

Maura looked back to Angela. "Has she been exhibiting symptoms of mild agitation, fatigue, an inability to cope with every day stresses?" she asked in a hushed tone that really wasn't very different from her normal tone.

Angela Rizzoli nodded slowly the way any mother would before going into detail. "It's a funk I'm convinced."

"A funk." Maura articulated slowly.

"Yes, you know, a funk."

"Concerning the case?" Jane had mentioned that it had been bothering her.

"—Korsak is leaving, my Frankie is getting married, it's a lot of change happening all around her."

"I'm right here guys." Jane called form the couch.

Maura glanced from the kitchen counter covered in patterns and clippings and back to Jane and then her mother. "I'm sensing a bit of depression because of it."

"Not depressed." Jane opened her eyes. "Just starving—"

"Do you think?" Angela's eyes widened and looked over at her little girl.

Maura nodded with a measureable level of concern as well. "Now I'm not a psychologist—"

"I ate at seven this morning… it's now one—"

"—But I think you may be right Angela."

"Between you and me, Maura—"

"It's not Ma, because I'm sitting right here!"

"—I think she may be a little frustrated as well. If you know what I'm saying?"

"Oh…" Maura did not.

"What happened to that nice FBI recruit—"

"That's it!" Jane stood from the couch suddenly and picked up her suit jacket. "I'm leaving."

Angela and Maura looked up with disappointment.

"Oh Jane, no, I'll be ready once I change, ten minutes." Mara pleaded knowing by the stride in the Detective's step and the determination in her dark eyes that she had pushed the other woman too far. Get in the way of Jane Rizzoli and eating and suffer the consequences. "Eight minutes." She bargained as Jane came around to kiss her mother on the cheek.

"Bye Ma." Jane stood upright. "We both know it doesn't take you eight minutes to change." She came around the island and before she knew what she was doing she leaned in and kissed Maura on the cheek as well. "I'll see you at work." Jane stood upright, a brow furrowing in the process. Maura wouldn't see it to completion though because Jane had turned and left within seconds.

Angela merely shook her head. "She gets so moody if she doesn't eat."

Maura chuckled softly, the tips of her ears beginning to warm with a small blush. "I know."

##

"What is that, a milkshake?" Frankie asked as he slid onto the stool next to his older sister at the Dirty Robber forty five minutes later. Nina went to visit her mother for the weekend, and he wanted to see if Jane wanted to play a pickup game at the park when he called but Jane was adamant about not leaving her meal.

"Let me try?" Frankie reached for the thick old fashioned milkshake glass.

Jane grabbed it back from him before he could take a sip. "Gross, no—then it'd be like kissing Nina." Jane put the glass down and picked up another one of her French fries. "That's exactly how you get Coodies, Frankie." She warned mid-chew.

He chuckled. "Hey it aint half bad."

"Double gross." She smiled at her younger brother though. He was clad in a simple leather jacket and jeans and shirt combo. "You ride here?"

He nodded as he flipped through the Dirty Robber food menu. "Brunch huh? When did we get a Brunch menu?"

"Where's your helmet?"

Frankie looked up at her. "In the coat room, _Ma_."

"Hey, I only ask because if you weren't alive and getting married she'd be up my ass again." She grabbed a french fry and waved it at him. "And because I love ya."

"You're really loving this aren't you?"

"Not when it keeps me from eating."

"Huh?"

Jane shook her head. "Nothing, Ma wanted to know if Nina likes doilies." Frankie made a face. "Yup, thought so."

"Doilies for what? It's not a funeral."

"It's happening, you just don't know about it yet."

Frankie shook his head. "I'm going to kill Kent." Jane only laughed. "He promised he deleted it…or was going to, or whatever, I knew he'd forget." He flipped over the menu. "How'd you get that burger?"

Jane looked over his shoulder at the new brunch menu. "I guess I just ordered it…"

"Milkshakes but no burgers?" Frankie shrugged. "Amway speaking of up our asses, Janie..."

Jane nodded as she shook the red basket her burger came in to bring some left over fries from under a soggy piece of lettuce in the corner. "When's he due in?"

"Tuesday afternoon. Tommy is coming in too."

"Course he is."

Both Rizzoli sat at the bar in silence for a moment. They could handle bad guys, hell even the occasional good guy turned bad guy, but when it came to their own family affairs both siblings held a registered amount of hesitation.

Jane pushed her basket away from her and pulled her milkshake closer.. "You gonna order a milkshake?"

Frankie nodded. "Yeah…"

More silence.

"You think Ma knows?" He asked before waving a waitress over.

Jane nodded. "Probably."

"So if she doesn't you're gonna tell her right? I mean we can't just no tell her."

"I really think she already knows."

"Yeah… Where's Maura?"

Jane paused. "What?"

Frankie shrugged. "Just figured you guys would be spending the day together."

"Why?"

"Uh, because she's been gone for a week and you've been moping around for just that amount of time…" Jane was giving him a look. "I passed that detective's exam fair and square."

"I'm not moping, and she's with Ma picking out patterns for _your_ wedding."

Frankie ordered a chocolate shake. "They do know it's not for like at least a year and a half right?" Jane shrugged. "Maybe it's a distraction."

"Yeah you're right, you did pass that exam."

Frankie shook his head. "What the heck kind of estate planning does he have, Janie? They sold the house; he left Ma to deal with IRS. What estate is left for him to damage?"

"Maybe he married rich, wants to put us on the new family trust."

Frankie let his shoulder drop towards her. "C'mon."

"When do we have to see him? I'm in the middle of a case."

"I've got cases too!"

Jane played with the red and white straw in her shake. "Well whenever it is it's not going to be Maura's house again." She had never been more embarrassed by her father in her entire life, and though she really hoped this time would be like the old times she didn't like the idea of putting Maura up again to be insulted, even if he hadn't meant it that way, Jane was taking it that way,

"Yeah well, not at my place." He paused. "Nina's moving in."

"Oh he's gonna want to meet her."

Frankie looked mortified. "She'll change her mind!"

Jane actually laughed and capped a reassuring arm around his shoulder. "No she won't."

Neither sibling commented on the others choice in ordering a second milkshake, and then a beer. A Celtics highlight reel was playing on the tv high above them and the two who had now been sitting in the bar long enough for the brunch menu to disappear and the young hip crowd to go with it so the Robber could begin it's steady but true transformation of returning to their beloved weekday cop bar.

"Yeah but he's been miserable this season." Frankie nodded.

Jane shrugged. Just then her cell phone which had been sitting on the bar beside her began to buzz. A call from Maura. "Yeah but we can't risk Golden State getting any better—Hey Maura…. At the Robber with Frankie…." She glanced at her brother who was pretending to be minding his own business. "I can check for you….tonight?" Angela and Ron had tickets to some show tonight that wouldn't be available for a while so for the first time in a decade she canceled Sunday dinner. Jane didn't see a need to really go back to Maura's at all but she had forgotten a bag in the Detective's unmarked and it was apparently very important that she unpack it tonight. Jane had to shake her head in amusement as the doctor continued to stress the importance of her unpacking routine. There was something about airing and spraying luggage to ensure international mites and bedbugs didn't nestle into her home, laundry, dry cleaning, reorganizing her new purchases in her closet, comparing her traveler's insurance clam with her items she left with, the list went on. "Alright alright Maura, stop talking okay?" She was smiling. "I'm on my way." They hung up.

"Duty calls?"

Jane stood up from the bar stool and stretched before reaching for her suit jacket. "You could say that."

Frankie laughed and stilted his beer up at her. "See ya."

Jane slipped her jacket on and located her car keys in her pocket. "Go home Frankie,"

"I will I will, just twenty more minutes in this game." He motioned to the TV. "I'll see you tomorrow."

##

"You have no idea what time you're saving me." Maura thanked again as Jane entered the door thirty minutes later with Maura's rolling carry on that she had packed so well in her trunk that she hadn't even noticed to bring it out earlier.

"I thought you'd end up on your own table if you hadn't had a chance to spray for international mites tonight." Jane put the bag down in the foyer and instinctively reached for her gun and her badge that was still on her hip. In the entrance to the Isles Manner there was an end table drawer that Maura had put a lock box in for her to put her gun and her badge when she came over. Jane emptied her pockets as well into the drawer and slipped out of her shoes. "Where's Ma?"

Maura was in the hall closet arranging something. "The coastline is clear Jane, she and Ron left forty five minutes ago." Maura located the reel of industry grade plastic she was looking for. "Are you hungry?"

Jane took off her jacket and tossed it onto the coat rack near the door before padding into the living room and checking just in case they were going to ambush her again and Maura was the bate. "It's just coast, Maura." She continued her way into the kitchen and noted a bottle of red wine open on the counter. Maura's glass sat beside it, Jane could tell from the small pink lipstick smudge on it.

"Pardon me?" Maura called form the hall.

Jane reached into the cupboard and took out a glass for some water. The idea of eating anything after two milkshakes and a beer didn't seem appetizing at all. Then again if she knew her mother there was lasagna somewhere in this house, and one bite, because it was Sunday traditions, wouldn't really make her feel any worse right? "Never mind!" She opened the fridge and frowned. "She didn't even make lasagna?"

Maura came into the kitchen with her sheet of plastic. "If you're hungry I have some lovely whole wheat and flax crackers-"

Jane turned finally noticing Maura was wearing what looked like painter jump suit with the sleeves cut off. "No Maura, you can't replace lasagna with crackers….what are you wearing?"

"Well at least have some wine; it's a blend of Groslot and Pinot Noir."

"A onsie?"

The shorter woman laughed. "Well I had planned to spend most of the afternoon with my best friend but when you left—"

Jane reached for a clean wine glass. "After three hours" She found one. "of very patient waiting might I add."

"You may."

Jane nodded. "Hmph, thank you."

"Anyway when you left I decided to get some house work done. This is a romper by Celina Monetone, the renowned interior designer turned fashionista." She turned around leaving Jane to notice and then try and unnoticed that the legs to the romper were rolled up to Maura's mid-thigh. "What do you think? I bought it in Paris."

Jane sloshed the wine in her glass about and nodded. "It's interesting."

Maura's smile faltered just slightly. "You always say that when you don't like something."

"And I always eat lasagna on Sunday's, See? I'm switching it up. It's um, it's nice." She nodded "It's.." Pretty? "Totally you… This wine is good too."

Maura smiled. "Well I'm glad you like it. I bought a case from the producer; he's going to be in New York for a wine show next month and will send it then." Maura stepped back out into the hall and a loud stripping of the roll of plastic she had been holding was heard. "Although after catching up on some emails I may be invited to sit panel for a pathology conference so I may just bring it back with me…"

"Mm." Jane nodded and came over to the couch with the bottle and two glasses before sitting down and reaching for the remote. She moved to turn the tv on but then sighed to herself when she realized something was missing. "Maura!" She called.

Maura pocked her head into the hall. She was holding a squirt bottle an wearing gloves. "I'm right here there is no need to yell."

Jane patted the space on the couch beside her. "I want to see your terenbytes."

Maura paused but then smiled softly at the apologetic look on her friend's face. "It's terabyte, it would be foolish of me to have more than one, and you're feeling guilty you left aren't you?"

Jane nodded. "But I'm not apologizing."

"I see."

"That would mean I would have to take back the milkshakes, which no one would ever do."

"Right."

Jane patted the sofa again. "C'mon, I want to hear all about the fromage and the paperclips, and Constance and... what else?" Maura looked back at her work in the hall. "I'll spray down the suitcases after, scouts honor."

Maura Isles was not a woman to break important procedures. Whether it were securing a body for transport to the funeral home, emptying bowls, transcribing her reports for her own personal records, or even spraying down her suitcases after any travel to prevent any sort of invasion. They were all important and all had their reasons of importance. She liked to see them as enzymatic primers that facilitated her goals both personally and professionally, but since her friendship with Jane (a woman who did little for prevent grave medical horrors from growing in her refrigerator) the good doctor was learning that life was better spent with those you cared about whenever possible, because even though she could calculate statistically that her risk of catching bedbugs from travel was around one point three percent, she couldn't count the days they would have left with one another.

There also just wasn't enough scientific peer reviewed work on these feelings, she had checked.

Jane began to grin as Maura made a dramatic show of taking her gloves off. Her grin turned laugh when the other woman sling-shotted them at her with a surprising amount of speed and accuracy. "Hey! What's this abuse for?" she laughed.

Maura crossed her arms to her chest as she approached the couch with a firm smirk in place.

"Not apologizing."


	3. Chapter 3

"Rizzoli."

"Four hours, thirty two minutes and seventeen seconds."

Jane smirked and glanced at Korsak driving. "No fair."

"My next session is this Wednesday, seven sharp."

Jane pointed silently to the house at the end of the corner. Vince nodded and slowed down. "Well listen, I need to know what kind of information I'm sacrificing my Wednesday night for."

"Did you have plans?"

"Korsak and I are approaching that toll agent's house now. Whaddya got, Maura?"

Maura picked up her clipboard. "Your victim was drugged, Jane."

"Toxicology didn't come back with anything."

"I found that odd, her pupils were cloudy, more so than usual to victims with violent deaths. I ran a more linear search and found trace elements of several very lethal opioids."

Jane waited.

"Jane?"

"You're not going to list them off for me?"

"Would you like me to?"

"No I left my dictionary at home today." Korsak laughed as he stopped the car. "So lethal but trace?" She and Korsak looked at one another when they noticed their person of interest out near his car two hundred feet away.

"Correct, probably administered through a solvent of some kind. Water most likely."

"Thanks Maura." Jane hung up and looked over at the house across from them. "Check this guy out." she motioned with her chin at Edgar Knowles the part-time toll agent on freeway seven. He was a thin man with brown hair, well-groomed but slightly forgettable. Jane hadn't really paid him much attention until he hadn't returned any of her calls that morning to return for minor questioning. He had an air tight alibi and really no real connection to the victim besides the place where he worked and where she was found. Currently Edgar was bringing out grocery bags from his house to his car. With every step he took he became more obvious to the detectives.

"Hm." Vince nodded.

"Isn't it a little odd to be putting grocery bags into your car instead of taking them out?"

"Maybe he's going on a picnic?"

"Yeah, to prison."

They both opened their car doors at the same time.

"Edgar Knowles." Vince called.

Jane stepped around the front of their car and extended her arms. "Called you a few times. Something wrong with your phone?"

"Jane." Korsak warned when he noticed a slight bend to Edgar's knees and the flicker of panic in his grey eyes.

Every nerve ending in Jane's body lit ablaze in that moment. "Yeah." She answered slowly before taking off down after Knowles. "Oh you better hope I don't catch you!"

Korsak jumped into their car and whipped around the corner to meet them when they cleared the fence of the house adjacent.

##

Maura inhaled deeply and sighed as the humidity laced with the sweet smell of chamomile blossoms entered her nostrils directly and began gently working their way into her pores.

It was seven at night and she had just completed her state review files from the time she were away, it had hardly dented her work load for catching up but it was a big burden off her mind. Why not celebrate with a little aroma therapy before approving Kent's over time?

Maura was tired; the dregs of Paris had been sapped out of her today when the morgue experienced a high volume of "guests" due to an eight car pileup on East Broadway. Her circadian rhythm had certainly been disrupted and she knew she couldn't sleep even if she wanted to. So as long as she were able to maintain her faculties Maura opted to work into the night.

The pathologist had become fairly skilled in leaving her everyday thoughts for peace of mind, but today was proving more difficult than most. Being in Paris with her mother gave her a lot of time to think. Constance was more of a night owl and that was when most of the posh galleries were open anyway. During the day the older Isles would rest and pamper herself while Maura roamed the streets she had come to love and know so well. She had time to work on her writing and visit with old family friends, she were also able to read, but if asked for specifics about her time alone besides the major points Maura couldn't really tell you. She found herself thinking about her decision to kiss Jane goodbye often. Was it inappropriate? In the forty odd seconds it took for her to decide she didn't think so, and certainly not while doing it, heck even now Maura could barely help the smile on her face, but that wasn't unusual with the tall Boston native. She was always smiling with Jane, and the truth was she had always been attracted to her for many reasons, they attracted one another - it's why they made such good friends, but as of recently, and recently being the last year, Maura had noticed a different form of attraction begin to bud, a longing sort of thing. Maura looked for Jane places she knew she was not and she knew Jane did too. They leaned on each other in a way that made the absence of her person aboard that the much more impactful.

The ME knew better than to approach this in its entirety all at once with Jane though. Whatever this feeling was she wanted to identify it with Jane and not without her. That obviously was taking some time. That kiss at the airport was meant to let her know she was waiting for her to decide to acknowledge their subtle shift, and that she would be there even if she were miles away. The one after the Robber was because she was inebriated, and she had been wondering all night what it would be like to kiss her best friend.

Both ends to a similar means she supposed.

"Um, Dr. Isles?"

Maua sat up quickly from her reclined position at her desk and took the warm tea soaked towel off her face. "Oh, hello Jenifer."

The lab tech smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry to bother you."

Maura rested her towel to the side and smiled. "No, please come in."

"Dr. Drake is in need of assistance, the families are here to identify the victims from the crash…."

Maura nodded before standing and smoothing out her scrub top. "Right. I will take names A-H, have you arranged the others for viewing?"

"I am in the process."

"Okay good."

She returned to her office four hours later and paused before the door. Had she closed it on her way out? With a single languid breath to center her mind and calm the sudden fear Maura nodded to herself before slowly leaned against the door to open it.

The overheadlight had been turned off but all the lamps remained on leaving a clear view of the room and the change within it.

Maura smiled.

Jane lay before her between the two narrow red office chairs fast asleep and clutching one of Maura's decorative zebra print pillows sweetly. Her usually animated features resembled the dead Maura realized and with a glance at her watch she knew why. She hadn't heard from the detective all day after their brief phone call and she supposed things with the case were developing if Jane was here this late and hadn't called or popped into the lab for more information.

Maura silently made her way over to her desk to drop off the file she needed to return before sighing as she looked down at her friend.

How did one care for such an extraordinary person exactly?

"Jane." The ME whispered. Jane didn't move. "Jane…" Maura rubbed her shoulder.

"Maura." Jane mumbled in greeting with her eyes still closed and her grip on the small pillow tightening slightly. Maura continued to rub her shoulder. "Feels good." Jane hummed

"Are you going to sleep here, tonight?"

Jane nodded and Maura frowned.

"Still on the case?" her hand moved to gently pinch the nape of Jane's neck burying her hand in thick black hair in the process. Jane opened her eyes and looked directly up into Maura's face as the doctor smoothed her fingers out against the back of her neck and pressed gently into the skin there before rushing to her scalp continuing their pressure as they went again. Maura found she couldn't look anywhere but Jane's dark eyes and for a moment the two let themselves sink into the other as Maura massaged the small area behind Jane's right ear and just below her hairline.

"I should sneak in here more often." Jane rasped as she let a smirk slip onto her tired features.

"That would be unwise." Maura squeezed her shoulder gently before retuning her hand to her side. She was suddenly unsure of quite what to do with her once nimble hands. Rearranging file folders on her desk seemed safe for right now, right?

Jane sat up and wiped at her face before sniffling and checking the time on the wall clock. It was close to eleven thirty. "You heading home soon?"

Maura nodded and turned to face Jane and lean against her desk. "Half an hour more."

"Maura." Jane stood. "Everyone's already dead, go home."

Maura crossed her arms to her chest and smiled. "I could say the same thing to you, Detective."

Jane exhaled heavily and moved to sit on Maura's desk beside her. "I've got a man upstairs confessing to the murder of twelve women. I'm not going anywhere."

"You're kidding, the toll agent?"

Jane nodded. "That bit about trace opioids, could you write something up for the Chief tomorrow on how you found it?" Jane scratched the back of her head. "Cloudy eyeballs was it?"

Maua nodded. "Absolutely…." She tilted her head. "Do you want me to bring you a change of clothes tomorrow morning?"

"You don't think the smell of deodorant and old coffee will get him to give up the locations of the other eleven victims?" She asked seriously.

"Perspiration too."

Jane chuckled and made a show of scooting away from her. "So no?"

Maura smiled. "No I don't think that will work, Jane."

Jane nodded thoughtfully. "Okay." She checked the time again and then kicked out her feet a little. "How was your day?"

Maura took stock of her the events of the day. "Productive. I predict sleeping tonight will be difficult though."

"Still jet lagged huh?" She nodded. "There's gotta be a tea for that."

Maura chuckled. "Yes actually an herbal blend of—" Jane's phone going off interrupted her.

Jane sent her an apologetic look before standing up from the desk and pulling the phone out from her pocket. "Rizzoli…Yeah…. Okay, I'll be right up." She hung up. "Frankie found something, I'd better go." The homicide detective made no move to leave though, but instead shifted her stance as if debating how to say something. Maura raised a brow slightly when she unknowingly rubbed the scar on one of her palms. "So this thing on Wednesday, it's at seven?" She slipped her hands into her pockets when she realized what she was doing.

Maura stood fully. "Yes, though I understand if this case is—"

"I'll be there."

"Okay."

"Call me if you want a uniform to follow you home?" The ME had taken her up on it a few times after her kidnapping but usually the two would finish around the same time and Jane would follow her till their turning off points.

Maura shook her head. "I'm sure that won't be necessary tonight. Try and get some rest." She motioned to the chair Jane had been sleeping in and as Jane lingered in the entryway she realized that she was sad to see her go so quickly. "Walk me to my car in twenty?" Maura rushed out and blushed slightly because of it. "I don't see a reason to not practice a little self-preservation after all, especially when fatigued." She rationalized calmly. "According to the National Crime Victimization Survey of 2016 the most violent crimes happen between 6pm and 6am in vacated locations such as parking garages. The fact that this is a police prescient bares little importance as it creates a false sense of security."

Jane nodded slowly. "Yeah, tell that to my gun."

Maua smiled softly. "Will you?"

The taller woman nodded. "Of course, Maura. I want you to feel safe."

"I do with you… and your gun."

Jane chuckled. "I'll see you in twenty." She slipped out of the office and made her way quickly down the hall to the elevators. After a quick stop to the restroom to wash the rest of the sleep from her face Jane went up to the bullpen where Frankie and Korsak were seated with their suit jackets off and their sleeves rolled up. A small mountain of empty take out containers sat on a nearby desk making the whole area smell of fried rice and soy sauce.

"Did you get some sleep?" Vince asked without looking up. Years of being partners with Jane had committed her strike pattern to memory.

Jane nodded and touched the area of her neck that Maura had massaged before taking a seat at the round table where all of the cold case files for the last two years sat. "We should have massages included in our HR benefits." Frankie only snorted in response. "What do you guys have?"

Korsak sat back in chair and took off his reading glasses. "So far two Jane Doe's and a Melissa Wilkins from 2014 that fit the description."

Frankie pushed a stack of manila folders in Jane's direction. "There's plenty to go around."

Jane cracked her neck and reached into her pocket for a hair tie to put her hair up into a ponytail.

##

"Guy's a nut case, Maura. There is no reasoning around what he was doing. No Mommy issues or Daddy issues, made good money, stable job, some friends… then what just like that? Dork by day serial killer by night?" Jane leaned against the hand rail in the parking lot elevator.

Maura had changed out of her scrubs and back into the pair of the white trousers, a red blouse and kitten heels she wore to work that day.

It was midnight.

"Symptoms of psychotic breaks vary greatly, usually depending on the circumstances of diagnosis or any contributary substance ingested. They can range from harmless, sometimes unnoticed delusions, to violent outbursts and major depression, Jane."

"Yeah but a psychotic break every month? What like a period?"

Despite her drowsiness Maura laughed. "I suppose you could compare it in frequency to menstruation yes. A stressor, the need for the female body to reproduce in this instance, occurs and the body has to come to terms with having to cope."

Jane made a face. "I was kidding."

"If you consider it scientifically though it isn't that far off, good job." The elevator finally dinged open to the parking level where Maura usually parked her car.

Jane pushed herself off of the rail and stepped out of the elevator with Maura. She quickly scanned the garage for any other vehicles or activity. Maura's blue Toyota Prius was parked under the main buzz of a lamp beside another grey sedan Jane knew belong to a PM cleaner for the lab. The late March night air was crisp but the stale smell of concrete and dried motor oil clung to the garage walls even with the night's breeze slipping in through the tall half walled structure.

"Now if I can only apply that wisdom to tomorrow." Jane remarked.

Maura admired the sound of their footsteps together briefly before looking over at Jane. "What's tomorrow?"

Jane furrowed a brow. Hadn't she told Maura? "My father is coming in to town to discuss his estate planning with us…"

Maura shook her head. "Tomorrow?"

"Found out on Saturday."

"Oh Jane, what do you think he intends to say?"

Jane shrugged impatiently. "I don't know Maura."

"Well does Angela know?"

"I'm pretty sure she does…." Jane thought for a moment. "You can't say anything to her if she doesn't. I know that's hard for you."

"Fatuus statim verecundiam meam super te, stulte bis verecundiam meam super me." Maura nodded proudly.

Jane shook her head. "I won't even go there."

"I won't fall for the Latin twice."

"Oh." Jane shook her head in a muted amusement. "You think that's the only card in her deck?"

"Well I'm sure she had to get creative with the three of you…. Estate planning?"

Jane nodded. "Can't imagine what the hell it could be."

Maura touched her arm. "You'll tell me if you need anything?"

Jane nodded. "New underwear should work for now, Maura, thanks."

She chuckled. "Yes, I'll remember." They neared her Prius. "You really need to drink more water; hydration is a key element in the body's ability to manage stresses."

Jane watched her key into her car. "Coffee has water in it."

"Yes Jane but water is better. Believe me. I'm a doctor."

"For dead people."

"They should have listened."

Jane smiled and held the front door open as Maura got into the driver's seat. "Yes, Ma'am." She closed the door once Maura was settled and leaned down to look at her through it when she lowered the window. "Don't forget to feed George Herman."

Maura smiled. "Goodnight Jane."

"Night, Maur."

##

"Do you want to go to the Robber with me?"

Maura looked up from the body on her table. Milo Burgess, 54, slipped and fell in the shower. He had come in that morning with another detective in Vice. Apparently Mr. Burgess had a colorful second life that in no way interfered with his demise, at least it was her job to forensically make sure of it

"It's three forty five in the afternoon."

Jane shrugged. "Soo..."

Maura smiled and focused back to her work. "When are you supposed to meet your father?"

Jane shrugged again. "Three…" Maura looked up at her. "Don't look at me like that!"

"How am I looking at you?"

"Like I used those little towels in your guest bathroom to wipe my face again."

"They are so clearly hand towels, Jane."

"Whatever, look can you come with me?" She sighed. "Plleeeaassee?"

Maura shook her head with a tight smile. "I am in the middle of an autopsy—" Jane opened her mouth. "and before you point out that he is already dead please understand that I value the efficiency of my work just as you do." Jane closed her mouth. "You'll be fine."

Jane pouted as she took a seat on a small rolling chair near her. "Why does he keep coming back?"

Maura furrowed her brows at something in Burgess's mouth. She reached for a magnifier and zoomed in. "Because he's your father and despite everything, he loves you."

"Yeah well, I don't see why I have to be there. You know he's meeting us at The Robber because he knows Ma will be there right?"

"And not because it's conveniently located to where two thirds of his children work?"

"Meh."

"Would you rather he come here?"

Jane crossed her arms. "Whose side are you on?"

Maura looked back over at Jane. "Yours."

"Okay so say something that will help me get out of this." She snapped a finger. "I've come down with the flu, you'd write a doctor's note for me right?"

Maura chuckled and finally put down her instruments and took off her gloves. "Jane I am not writing you a doctor's note for a family meeting."

"Psh, I'm up to my ears in a case and you can't do this one thing?" She stood as Maura approached her. "Traitor."

Maura smiled knowingly. "He's had a health scare before, just go and see what he has to say, Jane."

Her arms were still crossed but her features now contorted with conflict. "…You know I'd never say that I was overwhelmed unless I really was right?"

Maura softened a little. "Are you?"

"No." She shook her head yes.

Maura held her shoulders. "You are a great detective but an even better sister. You're feeling this way now because of wanting to protect the people you care about but what's really bothering you—"

"Maura c'mon."

"—what's really bothering you is that you're afraid that you will see him and miss him. That would be too messy."

"I just don't have the time for this again." Jane rolled her eyes. "He's changed, so have I, and Frankie, hell even Tommy, we aren't kids anymore."

"Some things also stay remarkably the same. I'm guessing that's his love for you all."

"He's a selfish idiot, who doesn't deserve second, third and fourth chances."

"Yes."

Jane chuckled despite herself. "You really won't write me a note?"

Maura stepped away from her and to Jane's surprise opened a drawer at her work station for her prescription pad. The Medical Examiner scribbled something on it before folding it and putting it in Jane's right hand. "Go."

"Maur—"The shorter woman turned her around and began pushing her out of the morgue. "Maura!"

"I'm working. Call me when you're done."

After allowing herself to be pushed into the hall but before making it a pint to glare at Maura through the glass double doors Jane made her way to the front of the precinct where she had parked. Outside Frankie was leaned against her car waiting with Nina holding a coffee. Jane waved at them and watched as her soon to be sister-in-law rested a reassuring hand on her brother's shoulder before walking up the steps towards Jane.

"Hey Jane."

"Hey." Jane smiled. "Thanks for waiting with him."

Nina nodded. "Family is hard."

"Well you know I'm glad you're gonna be a part of ours." She looked over at her brother. "You know we adore you right?"

Nina laughed sweetly. "The feeling is mutual." She shook her head then. "He can't be that bad right? Frank Sr.?" She glanced over her shoulder at her fiancé.

"No he wasn't, it's complicated…"

"Anyway. I'll be here if you need me, Korsak wants to go through the evidence we found and asked if I would help."

"Let us know if you find anything." Jane watched her enter the precinct and then sighed. She looked back at her younger brother who motioned to the car in patiently.

"You know we're late." She could hear the crankiness in his voice as they both buckled up in the car moments later.

"Yeah so what?" Jane huffed. She looked down at the slip of paper Maura had given her, she hadn't read it yet.

"What's that?"

Jane slipped it into her jacket pocket and started the car. "Something Maura gave me."

Frankie shook his head. He hardly had the energy for seeing his father again; dissecting his sister's friendship with Maura for the umpteenth time would have to wait for a lighter day. Today he felt heavy, they were close to finding the exact location of Knowles' other victims, but every time he stepped into the interrogation room with the timid yet calculating killer he felt even more emotionally drained.

"Korsak had CSU do another comb over of the car and house." He took a sip of his coffee. "Came up positive with DNA from four of our cold case victims."

Jane was focusing on the road. "We already have him; this just makes it easier and faster for the courts to haul his ass out to the looney bin."

"You really think the judge is going to buy this whole psychotic break bit?"

She shrugged. "It's possible."

"He was calculating, he sold the regular untampered water to men and the drugged water to any woman that met his fetish, Janie, there is no way a court is going to see that as sporadic."

"Our job isn't to guess what the court will do. It's to bring in all the evidence possible and hope for a just conviction."

He shook his head and looked out the window at the streets they had both sworn to protect from animals like Knowles. "You're really having an off day huh?"

Jane glanced at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Means it sounds a whole lot like you've given up the case and can't wait for it to be over." He bit.

"Right and suddenly you are the expert on all things homicide."

The car was silent for the remainder of the trip to The Dirty Robber. When Jane parked she sighed heavily and looked over at her younger brother who hadn't made a move to get out or look at her.

"I'm sorry."

She hadn't meant to snap at him and she was feeling bad about it. Through a lot of her life Frankie had been her best friend, and to this day they remained closer than she and Tommy would ever be. They shared the badge and there wasn't a whole lot that could get in the way of the bond between brother's in blue, except maybe an actual brother. She had both in Frankie and she never wanted him to forget how much she was grateful for him.

Frankie nodded to himself before looking over at his older sister. "Me too, Jane."

"This case… it's like a marathon run alright? You gotta pace yourself." She shared. "I do too."

"It's a lot…" He motioned to the bar. " _This_ is a lot."

"Yeah… Whatever it is we handle it together though alright? You, Tommy and I have to be strong for each other and for Ma."

Frankie nodded. "Nina wants to meet him."

"Nina better count her lucky stars Ma hasn't cornered her yet. We'll see how many more Rizzoli's she wants to meet after that." Frankie laughed. "Alright?" She jabbed him softly in the shoulder. "C'mon, let's get this over with so we can get back to _our_ case."

Frankie nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

Jane slipped out of her seatbelt and motioned to the parking meter associated with their spot. "Go in and order us some of those milkshakes, I'll feed the meter." Frankie agreed and soon disappeared into the bar leaving Jane to riffle through some of her pockets for loose change, Maura's prescription fell out in the process and the detective hurried to pick it up before it got swept away by the late afternoon breeze. As she fed the meter with one hand she fought to unfold the small sheet of paper to look at it with the other.

There in the center of the prescription note with Maura's credentials printed at the bottom lay a simple hastily drawn heart. Jane burst out laughing and dropping seventy-five cents when she read the doctors script beneath it.

 _Remember the Alamo!_

After gathering up the spilt change and while shaking her head Jane regarded the note fondly once more before folding the scrip back up neatly as it was and then twice more. She slipped it discreetly between the tough leather that held her badge and its binding clip before securing it back onto her waist and heading toward the entrance of The Dirty Robber.

What a dork.

 **AN: Loving all the feedback! I'm hoping you're enjoying reading these two as much as I am writing them. Review!**

 **KathleenDee**


	4. Chapter 4

Tommy waved animatedly from his seat in the booth "Jane! Jane!"

Jane raised a hand to single she had seen him before walking toward the bar and leaning against it. Her mother had just clocked in and was polishing glasses while glancing every now and then to the corner booth where her two sons and ex-husband sat. "You okay with this?"

Angela Rizzoli huffed but then looked back to her daughter. "He's your father, Jane. He can speak to you if he likes but he better not come over here." She threw her polishing rag down on the bar but then seemed to halt her distain when she remembered something. "Are you still depressed?"

With an eye roll Jane pushed herself off the bar and made her way toward the booth with her brother's and father. "Hi Pop."

Frank Sr had aged mostly around the eyes but other than that Jane couldn't really tell a change in him physically and for some reason that bothered her. Shouldn't he have lost wait for not eating lasagna every Sunday, or the guilt he harbored for what he had done to them, put them through?

Her father offered her a thin smile. "Sweetheart, thanks for coming."

Jane slid into the seat beside Frankie and reached for a straw for the strawberry milkshake that sat untouched in front of her. "Yeah well, I'm on a case. What's going on?"

"Yeah spit it out, you're not sick again right?" Tommy asked worriedly.

"No, no." Frank Sr. shook his head. "But I've been taking some time to think about what would happen to you kids if something happened to me or your mother."

Jane tried her best to let the sugary goodness of her milkshake calm her but after all it was just a milkshake. "Now you worry? Now?"

Frank Sr. sighed. "I've always worried about you three—"

"Was this before in the middle or after you screw over our Ma and then Lidia?" Frankie asked finally not being able to remain quiet.

"Listen I'm not perfect and I made my mistakes that I'm paying for, but I'm trying to make it right by yous three okay?" Frank didn't think this would be easy but looking at their three adult faces now made him increasingly aware that they were seated in a bar. The irony that his ex-wife was the bartender wasn't lost on him. "You may get to a point in your life where you have to make a decision for your own happiness and not anybody else's, even if you do care about them and what they think, and even if you aren't sure of the outcome. That's life alright?"

"You still drinking, Pop?" Jane finally asked. She wasn't above being lectured about decisions of happiness, hell she understood his words more than he would ever realize, but she wasn't about to be lectured by a hypocrite with no responsibility and poor impulse control.

"I'm working a program, Janie."

"Working a program." Frankie repeated. "So sometimes?"

"From time to time, I'll have a drink, so what?" He motioned to where they were. "Your favorite hangout is a bar for Christ's sake."

"It's different." Tommy spoke up surprising both Jane and Frankie. "You gotta stick with it Pop, that's the only way."

"Tommy's right." Jane nodded. "Whatever doing right by us means you do it completely sober, or you don't do it at all."

Frank Sr. nodded slowly. "We can't be like how we were then can we?" He realized allowed. No more ballparks or family dinners at Mario's. It had taken all the courage he had to come back here today; he didn't have any left to pretend as if he wasn't hurt by the reality of the situation.

Jane shook her head and then looked to Frankie who followed and finally Tommy who did as well albeit a little hesitant. "You gotta get help."

Frank nodded again before leaning back in his chair. "Well regardless I wanted to talk to you about Rizzoli Sons."

The three exchanged looks. "What about it?" Tommy asked.

"I've gotten into a bit of a bind before all this recovery…. I'm selling it."

"You're what?"

"What it's worth these days you three wouldn't believe, something about a business license that isn't given out anymore, with it I can pay off this one thing and set you three up." No one said anything. "You gotta let me do this."

"So it's not really about us is it?" Frankie pushed his milkshake aside. "You're just in some trouble."

"I think about you three all the time, but I aint perfect, Francesco."

"Yeah we got that part." Jane shook her head. "What going on here, Pop? You couldn't have done all this without us, sent us a check, an email, something."

"I wanted to tell you all that I'm gonna be moving to New York for a job, I'm going to be a little closer and I wanted to know if you three would be open to trying to have some kind of relationship." The table was quiet. "I'm not perfect, but I'm still your father."

##

Maura watched her closely asking something with her eyes she hadn't even noticed she asked until Jane wordlessly shrugged in response. The detective's head was resting against her own right arm which was resting on the back of Maura's couch, she looked exhausted.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Maura decided words were best now, especially because she were unsure of what the small twitch to softness of Jane's features meant.

"No." Her friend groaned.

"Do you want to sing about it?"

Jane exhaled quickly. "Sing Maura?"

The ME smiled. "Studies have shown that singing often can alter ones long term state of mind. It acts with the zzygomaticus major and minor muscles tricking the brain into happiness." Jane just stared at her. "If you'd like I can put something on." She motioned to the far corner of her living room where a small table top radio sat. "It might make you feel better."

"I'm fine, Maura." Jane sat up a little as if her posture would help prove her point. She was clad in long plaid pajama bottoms and a white tank top, something Maura had gathered from her apartment when packing her overnight bag. Jane intended to sleep at the station again but decided against it when Maura made promises of pizza and wine. It sounded a lot better than the stale vending machine cookies and the pm crew's terrible habit of mixing the old coffee in the precinct coffee pot to the new brew.

"Fine implies a state a neutral condition." Maura rested her hand back on her knee. "I'm not sure if you are aware of how you look right now."

Jane looked over at her. "If that's supposed to be reassuring or comforting in any way—"

"It wasn't,"

Jane chuckled. "Oh good."

Maura folded her legs under her on the couch and leaned her elbow against its back. "I wish you'd tell me how you really feel."

"C'mon Maura."

"You said once you could tell me anything, why is this so different?"

"You really never forget do you?" Maura only shrugged softly. The motioned causing her shoulder to peak out under the loose cashmere sweater she was wearing. Jane looked back to the half-eaten pie on the coffee table and the bottle of wine they had finished. "How do I feel…" She began. "I feel annoyed most." She turned to look back at the shorter woman. "Y'know it's always something…"

Maua nodded. "It's rather untimely isn't it?"

Jane chuckled. "Yes _rather_ , I shouldn't even be here; I should be at the precinct." She shook her head. "I still have to find those other women…"

"You cognitive ability will suffer if you don't rest."

"Yeah I know, that and sausage pizza and- what's this called again?" Jane motioned to the empty bottle of wine."

"Nero D'Avola."

"Yeah, it's the only reason I'm letting you talk me into not going back tonight."

Maura laughed lightly. "So the only means of getting you to say or do anything beneficial for your health is alcohol and food?" She wrinkled a brow. "That seems a little counterproductive don't you think?"

"No."

Maura shook her head with amusement. "No? Annoyance is fleeting. Why do you look so upset? Tommy has moved on and is doing well, and unless you are considering a career change…"

"That's not the point, Maura."

"What is then?"

Jane shrugged with one shoulder. "He's just…It's just…. It was my first job okay?" She leaned forward for another slice of pizza. She wasn't hungry. "and let me tell you something it wasn't as cool as I thought it was when your father was fixing everyone in the neighborhood's toilet." She took small bite and Maura waited for her to chew. "We took a lot of shit for that, but I was never more proud to be a Rizzoli." She reached to her lap to pick up a rogue sausage crumble and pop it into her mouth. "It's not the end of the world… but once again he's come in and trampled on something good we all shared." Jane took a larger bite of the slice in her hand to signal she had nothing more to say on the matter. Maura was always able to get her to say things she rather keep private and she had no idea how.

Maura watched her enlarged cheeks break down the food slowly before swallowing. "Hopelessness." She read sadly.

Jane looked over at her. "Is that what it is?" She wiped her mouth.

"The foundation in which you put most weight on is your family, and it's changing in ways that you can't control."

"I'm okay with out of my control, what I'm not okay with is not knowing if I'm doing the right things at the right times. I've always been so sure, Maura."

"I know." She smiled thinly. "A little uncertainty is perfectly healthy, a lot is changing." She thought of their meditation class tomorrow and looked elsewhere in her living room before turning back to Jane. "Tomorrow can wait." Jane looked at her then. "It's only a class." The woman across from her narrowed her eyes subtly; Maura had seen her do it before when questioning a witness at a crime scene. It wasn't a declaration of suspicion but more so aired on the side of a silent request for the truth.

"It's important to you." Jane read.

Maura nodded. "Is it to you?"

"You are." She said slowly. "You are important to me." Jane touched her arm then and the two stared at one another. "What's going on here, Maura?" Jane whispered after the gaze failed to break after their usually allotted time expired, her hand still remained gently covering Mura's elbow.

Maura wasn't certain what this feeling was; Jane looking at her like this, but it was warm and gooey and all she wanted to do was continue to look at the detective, continue to feel her looking at her. Maura shook her head slowly and attempted a small smile. "I don't know, Jane."

"Well, cut it out." Jane blushed some as her fingers gently brushed the soft skin of Maura's arm. "It's distracting, you're distracting."

Maura smile grew showing her dimples now as she tilted her head. "I distract you? Me?"

Jane made a face. "Is that so hard to believe?"

Maura let herself sigh. "Jane, I don't know what to believe…" Her experiment to give in and embrace the feelings that made her nervous was beginning to backfire. She never felt safer in its failure though, and she knew it was because of Jane. The ME glanced at Jane's hand on her arm. "I don't want you to move your hand though."

Jane looked to her right hand. She curled her fingers around Maura's arm gently and then looked back at the other woman. "No?"

Maura shook her head. "No."

They stared at one another for a moment more before Jane let her hand slip to her lap. "Maura."

Psychophysics was the branch of experimental psychology that fascinated Maura the most. If one could understand the study of sensation and perception couldn't one understand everything else in life? She had to stop herself from mentioning aloud the difference threshold of the fuzzy cold that covered the particular area on her arm where Jane's hand had been. Instead she chooses to study the half of her friend's face she could see. Jane almost seemed ashamed. "Something has changed."

Jane looked over at her and nodded once. "What?"

Maura smiled softly at the worry wrinkling Jane's brow now. "Nothing we have to decide tonight."

Jane leaned against the back of the couch and nodded more to herself before looking at Maura again. "Or tomorrow?"

"Or tomorrow." The pathologist agreed, and though it was so clearly delaying whatever it was delaying Maura couldn't help but feel better, it was the solace you got when you realized you weren't alone she recognized.

"Let's watch something." She didn't wait for Maura to agree before flipping the television on. Beside her Maura began to get comfortable by pulling a throw over her legs and leaning her weight slightly against Jane as she always did when they watched television together. Had they always sat so close the detective wondered? "No games tonight…" Jane glanced at her and suddenly felt a little bad. She wondered how Maura's day had been, had she found that poky thing she was looking for? Was the big guy on her table a criminal or just a klutz? What'd she do with the rest of those jellybeans Jane saw her purchase at the vending machine? She sure as hell wouldn't eat them… maybe it was for an experiment. "You wanna pick?"

Maura looked at her curiously. "Really?"

Jane shrugged and handed her the remote. "Yeah."

Maura took the remote control happily and began pressing a series of buttons. "There is a Finnish opera on the satellite network I've been dying to see!"

Jane groaned as Maura smiled at her excitedly. "I don't know Finnish, Maura." As if the other woman didn't know.

Maura curled back up onto the couch beside her after finding the correct channel. "It's okay, I will put on the subtitles." She dismissed while tucking her legs under herself. "Or if you'd like we can watch the English adaptation after."

"How long is this one?" Jane asked as the thick red curtains on screen began to be pulled away revealing the set of a sleepy town in what she supposed was somewhere in Finland.

"Three hours."

"Three hours, Maura!?"

"Shh, it's starting."

##

"Hey, Ma." Jane whispered over her shoulder an hour and a half later. The entire living room was dark save for the bright television casting shades of light on herself and a now sleeping Maura. The volume to the tv was muted and for the past hour Jane had been watching the images of big men and sturdy women singing into nothingness while she got lost in her own thought.

Angela Rizzoli slipped on a small kitchen light and pulled her robe against her as she studied the scene before her. "Hi sweetheart, I didn't know you were sleeping over."

Jane motioned with her chin to Maura's head rested against her shoulder. "Maura's idea…."

Angela smiled. "She'll wake up with neck pain."

Jane supposed her mother was right but she couldn't help but not want to move the other woman at all. Maua was warm and smelled faintly of her perfume and a night cream made from five different age fighting tea leafs, all of which she had no idea how to pronounce but smelt amazing blended with Maura's natural scent. Their conversation earlier came back then. What did it mean if Maura didn't want her to move her hand and Jane didn't want her to move her head?

Angela Rizzoli was already standing behind the couch rocking Maura's shoulder gently. "She's fallen asleep in the tub reading you know." Her mother whispered. Jane let herself chuckle, somehow she could totally see that. "Maura honey…"

Maura opened her eyes sleepily. "Did I miss the third act?" she looked at Jane expectantly.

"Um…" Jane looked back to the tv. "YYessnnn—How can you tell?"

Maura smiled up at Angela who was still rubbing her shoulder affectionately before looking over at the television. "You weren't watching it without sound were you?" she looked slightly mortified.

Jane unmuted the tv. "No?"

Maura shook her head and got to her feet deciding in that moment that she would ignore Jane's misuse of the mute button for a time when she was better able to complete mental thoughts. Right now a cocktail of neurotransmitters were leaning her back to wakefulness and she knew she wouldn't be able to sustain a restful night's sleep if she fought them. "I left the melatonin for you in the guest bathroom, Jane."

Angela crossed her arms. "Mela-what?"

"Oh, N-acetyl-five-methoxy tryptamine is perfectly natural." Maura nodded.

Angela looked down at her daughter who merely shrugged. "Well it sounds like a drug." The older Rizzoli put her hands on her hips and looked between the two of them again.

Jane shed the throw she and Maura were sharing as she stood. "It's not a drug, Ma." She waved her hands toward Maura. "It's a five methoid proxy-limeaide."

Maura gave her a look and then turned toward Angela. "I'd better be going to sleep, excuse me Angela." Jane's mother smiled at her warmly and said goodnight but stood where she was. Maura looked over to Jane. "Good night, Jane."

"Night Maur." There was a slight moment of hesitation between them but before Jane could examine it Maura was gone leaving her and her mother alone. Jane put her hands up in surrender when her mother raised a brow. "I don't wanna talk about today, Ma."

"How'd you know I was going to ask that?"

"Because it's my job to read people okay?" Jane let herself yawn.

"Janie wait." She gripped her daughter's slender shoulders in that lovingly overbearing way of hers. "I just want you to know that whatever you kids want to do I support you all."

Jane smiled softly. "Thanks, Ma." She had no idea she needed to hear it until she heard it, she wasn't sure why but her mother's ability to do that was still a welcomed surprise. She had o idea what she were going to do about her father, whatever she decided though she knew it would have to be in line with what her brothers wanted. They'd do this together, whatever that meant.

Jane pulled herself up the stairs after a goodnight hug from her mother. She could feel the sweet serenade of sleep tugging at her eyelids but something had ticketed her hindbrain a moment ago and like any instinct Jane couldn't ignore it. She paused in front of Maura's closed bedroom door and checked that the light was still on before knocking. There was stillness before the soft padding of Maura's slippered feet could be heard.

"Jane."

Jane leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms to her chest. "Could it be possible that our victims were primed to react to those trace opioids by normal hormones like melatonin?"

Maura thought on it briefly before nodding. "It is possible."

"Do you think that's what happened?"

Maura shook her head. "I can't know that unless I preform a third autopsy on our first victim…"

Jane nodded to herself. "We just thought the guy was health conscious with all those vitamins at his place. Maybe he interacted with our victims more than we thought."

"Or is not working alone." Maura concluded. Jane glanced back down the hall and Maura cleared her throat.

"What?"

"There is nothing you can do right this second without a lab technician and my written approval for a third autopsy." Jane had that look about her like she was calculating how long it would take her to get back to the precinct. Case face. She also had a look about her like she would pass out behind the wheel half way there. "Go to sleep, Jane."

Jane sighed heavily. "Fine." She pulled herself up from the doorframe. "But no lollygagging ." She warned. "We don't have time for your three hour pour over."

Maura crossed her arms. "You said it was the best coffee you had ever had."

"Yes, I've also said that about gas station coffee." Maura crossed her arms. "What I mean to say is Boston Joe's might be just a little faster, just a little."

"Boston Joe's over roasts their beans and seldom sources fermented fruit higher than below average quality markers."

"I don't know what that means."

"Exactly."

##

Jane reclined in her chair and crumbled up the greasy wax paper and tossed it into the bag it came in before reaching for her root beer and sipping through her bendy straw. "Let's run it back again." She decided after having spent the last three minutes at her desk silently eating and staring at the case board. There had to be something said about being able to eat a cheeseburger with such satisfaction while staring at crime scene photos. Knowles was being moved at the end of the week to county and if they couldn't pin these other eleven murders to him he'd be out in a few years with a slap on the wrist. Jane wouldn't let that happen, she couldn't.

Korsak adjusted his tie as he gave himself time to finish his last chew. "Edgar Knowles. Sole survivor of a family fire in '84 as a young child. Grows up in the system until he turns eighteen—"

Jane nodded to herself. "That's when he tries to join the reserves only to not be rejected." She stood form her desk. "Ends up working a string of dead end jobs, pizza delivery, stock boy, grocery clerk—"

"Don't forget his most recent letting go at." Korsak slipped on his glasses. "Rite-Box drugstore in Southie."

Jane looked to the map they had created with red pins signaling Edgar Knowles connection to the area. "and as of six months ago his part time role as a highway toll agent." Jane shook her head at the many red pins. "He's been everywhere. How the hell are we going to triangulate an outlier?"

Korsak moved to stand beside her. "Maybe it's time we pay a visit to his foster mother's home."

Jane found the pin on the map which signified Ms. Rodigel's residence. The elderly woman with all the cats. "It is close enough to the Highway, but that in and of itself means he had a place to store the body, why leave it in plain sight the way he did?" She rubbed her chin. "the toll booth would give him direct sight of the body and the attention it caused right?"

Vince nodded. "An escalation?"

"Well you'd have to imagine Knowles would want to be able to watch the havoc he had caused with every victim at a safe distance."

Korsak nodded. "It doesn't explain the hormones theory." She had run it by him that morning when she got in.

"Maura is running tests from the vic's third autopsy." Jane nodded. "How about we split up and take a look at these last known places of employment."

Vince nodded. "Better than sitting around here, take Frankie with you."

Jane grabbed her blazer from the back of her chair and the paper bag from McGretty's Burger Grill. "Sounds good." She stuffed the bag under her arm and checked to make sure she had her weapon on her waist before grabbing her cell phone off of her desk. "Shit." She muttered.

"What wrong?"

It was five and Rite Box Pharmacy was thirty minutes away without evening traffic. "Nothing." She waved off. "Just didn't realize it was so late."

Korsak chuckled. "Hope you didn't have a date."

"What? Who's got a date?" Frankie asked the room as he emerged clad in a grey suit and brown tie. "It can't be either of you, so what? It's Knowles? I was just up there no one was in to visit him. Not even that lawyer."

Vince shook his head. "Go with Jane."

"I know why he can't have a date, but why can't I have a date?" Frankie opened his mouth. "And before you say anything I'm going to need you to focus really hard on your answer baby brother."

"You sure I can't come with you?" Frankie asked Korsak as Jane made her way into the hall not waiting for his response.

"We're looking for something held in plain sight." Vince reiterated. "We think Knowles held his victims in places where he could keep an eye on them, places many people use but seldom really pay much attention to, think you can handle that?"

Frankie huffed. "Hey, you try working with your sister."

The seasoned detective chuckled. "You don't want me doing that."

They moved to take the elevator down together, Jane was already gone. "My eldest sister Mary is a dance teacher in Palm Beach."

Frankie chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. Don't wanna see that."

Korsak capped an arm on his shoulder. "Let's focus on nailing this bastard and not my moves."

Down in the morgue Jane scratched the back of her neck before pushing into the main autopsy room where she found Maura where she often found her - leaning over a dead body. Aside from offering to grab her lunch Jane hadn't interacted much with Maura that day. She wouldn't say she was avoiding her but the build of tension as every hour had passed counting down until their meditation class tonight had been just behind her every thought. She hated the idea that she could be distracted so easily, especially because it seldom ever happened, not when it came to a case but the taller woman couldn't really help herself.

Something had changed, Jane knew it, Maura knew it, but until last night there had been a silent agreement of sorts, something comfortable, something Jane could put away when need be, not anymore though.

"So what's it mean if I can eat and look at crime scene photos?" Jane asked casually as she stepped into the chilled autopsy room. The unmistakable smell of decomposition and various chemicals ruffled her senses some and served as a good reminder for her timeframe down there. Frankie had probably made it to her car by now and was either on his way down here or pulling out his phone to call her.

Maura didn't look up from her work. "A disconnect of visual sensitivity to socially adopted views on morality and violence. It's not uncommon given our work."

Jane shifted her footing. "Hm…"

"Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "Just had a really good burger—You got anything on this hormone theory?" Maura looked up. She was wearing her full scrubs and goggles a note that it had been another busy day down here for her, the colorful blouse and pencil skirt she had worn to work that day were probably hung up in her office beside her lab coat. "Korsak was curious."

"Just Korsak?"

"Well alright me too, c'mon Maura tell me we got something."

Maura stood upright and motioned to the young woman on her table. "I haven't found anything yet but we should be receiving tests shortly. Cause of death is the same blunt force trauma to the skull. Lividity is the same." Maura moved to show Jane her mouth. "There is something you should note." Jane leaned in. "These lines here indicate dehydration, given the humidity was at a record low the day we received her our analysis initially concluded that that was xerodermia." Jane shifted. "Dry skin."

"Ah."

"After the second autopsy I realized it had to be from an actual dehydration and not a simple drying."

"Alright so he held her for some time before leaving her on the road. Where though?" She shook her head. "Knowles has worked everywhere in the greater Boston area, there has to be some way of finding these other bodies, I don't really feel up for another goose hunt." She looked at her watch again and sighed. "Anyway I may be late to our thing." Maura had taken off her gloves and had moved to the standing desk and computer where some results for another case had just binged and grabbed her attention. She paused and looked over at Jane. "I know." Jane apologized. "Frankie and I are on our way to a few other places where Knowles worked. We think he may have hidden the bodies at his old jobs. I'll call you."

"The class has a strict policy on cell phones, Jane."

"Well you may not even need it because I'm going to be there."

Maura smiled but knew better, they both did. "We can always reschedule." She reminded as she watched the other woman slowly walk backwards out of the autopsy room.

"No no, I said I'll be there, gonna be super relaxed and open to new ideas and mindfulness and barefoot and stuff."

"Right after you find the eleven other victims to a seral murderer?"

Jane snapped her fingers together. "Yes, right after that. I'm yours, promise."

"Jane—"

"Stop talking to me, it's only going to make me late."

Maura chuckled as she watched her turn and push out of the room. Five minutes later she smiled to herself as she continued to examine their victim's mouth and the dryness within it. "Did you forget your gun, Detective?" She teased having heard a familiar strike pattern before her enter the autopsy room.

He cleared his throat. "Maybe you're thinking of someone else."

The Chief Medical Examiner looked up quickly at the voice and fought her surprise to smile politely. "Mr. Rizzoli."

He waved her off. "Just uh, just call me Frank."


	5. Chapter 5

"Frank yes." Maura looked down to the naked woman on the table in front of her. "I'm sorry but this area is closed to visitors." She pulled gently at the thin sheet at Carla Jepsin's waist. With a small nod to his visitors pass poorly stickered to his beige jacket Maura motioned to her office. "Perhaps my office?"

Frank must have noticed the body because he visibly tensed. "She's dead right?"

Maura took her gloves off and stepped around the table to obstruct his view. She forgot sometimes that dead bodies made people uncomfortable, that and she felt obligated to protect young Carla's signity a little, after all she had been splayed out for everyone to gawk at in death, that wouldn't happen here. "She is." She motioned to her office. "This way?"

Frank Rizzoli nodded as he followed her slowly and entered the very out of place yet stylishly adorned medical examiner's office. "I didn't mean to interrupt your work, Maura." He always found Maura odd, slightly off if he were really to put a finger on it, but Jane had taken to her so quickly. It wasn't that Maura wasn't nice, no Frank enjoyed having her over for Sunday dinners early on in the two's friendship but working on dead bodies like this couldn't be healthy and if he were really dialing in he'd acknowledge the bit of resentment he held for her for taking his family away.

But there was no dialing in when you downed three beers to get the courage to confront your daughter at her place of work was there?

He seldom made a habit of it anyway.

Maura studied his inability to maintain attention before motioning for him to sit. "Please, anything for the Rizzoli's." She hadn't meant for it to come out as knowing as it did. His ex-wife was living with her after all and his daughter well… she and Jane had kissed, well _she_ had kissed Jane…twice Maura shook her head at her trailing thoughts. "What can I help you with, Frank?" She took a seat opposite him and that was the point when the very obvious aroma of cologne masking fermented wheat finally registered.

"I came to see Janie, but they said she was down here." He looked around the office curiously. "When she got hired she took her mother and me on a tour, she was so proud… You uh, haven't seen her have you?" He looked back to Maura after scanning the office. Maura noted how he swayed slightly with the scan.

Maua nodded. "You just missed her, she's working a case."

"I went by her apartment last night and she wasn't home." He brushed invisible debris from his jaw.

"She was with me." Frank gave her a strange look. "At my home, we had plans…" She further explained.

"You're protective of my girl."

Maura felt it was an accurate assessment even considering his mild inebriation. "I am." She straightened out a wrinkle that had just began to form on her blue scrub pant.

"You think I'm here to hurt her huh?"

Maura blinked. Yes that was exactly what she thought. "I… think she is shocked by seeing you again." Not a lie.

"You guys are always together; it'd be nice for Janie to settle down." Frank shrugged. "You too, doc."

Maura nodded. "Well it hasn't been for lack of trying, Frank." She let out a polite chortle while checking the time on the wall; it was possible Jane were still in the building perhaps if she were able to ring her. "Would you like some coffee?"

He shook his head at an offensive thought completely ignoring the pathologist's invitation. "Jane maybe not, y'know all my kids got some kind of hang-up, I blame their mother really. She spoiled them rotten." He went on sluggishly "Janie, she's too bullheaded to compromise on anything, she probably scares half the men this side of Boston, how's se gonna get married if she scares 'em.?" He reclined in his seat and sighed heavily.

Maura stood. "I'll go make us some."

##

Jane stopped the buzzing phone at her hip for the third time and motioned to their surroundings. The once lit street she had chased Edgar Knowles down was shadowed with late evening and speckled with traditional suburban street lamps save for the one she and her brother stood under. "It's kinda perfect huh?" Frankie asked before looking over at his sister.

Jane nodded and looked into the darkness passed the large overgrown street that jutted out right before the next working light in front of Knowles residence. "Not low visibility, no visibility. He could literally carry a body through the front door and neither neighbor would notice."

They had decided to start as Edgar would, begin at his home and drive to the closest ex-place of employment. Evening traffic had slowed them down considerably and Jane finally resigned in the fact that she was going to be more than thirty or so odd minutes late to the hour long class with Maura, she needed all her attention here and though it had proved harder than she liked to admit she spoke case facts with her brother the entire way to get herself here.

"Alright so we know he worked at night…." Frankie looked around them. "Which store is open at night?"

Jane shook her head. "No, which place is closed at night. He'd had to have had credentials to access whatever area he hid the body in, but the places he worked aren't like this place. They are public, open spaces, with parking lots and security cameras. He may have taken the bodies here but to stage them he had to have been somewhere where he could manipulate them to be private when it was public." Jane raised her flashlight and slowly walked toward the house while Frankie pulled out his tablet. "What's the closest?" She asked as she took her time to notice things about the house she hadn't had the time to notice before, like the boots on the ground near the front door, there were two of them one seemingly bigger than the other and in no way fitting their five foot four inch tall offender. Jane dragged her flashlight across the doorframe and then paused and leaned closer.

"Alright you got the pharmacy although hat's twenty four hours receiving is only from five to eight, that's the closest location, maybe he was able to come at a time when they weren't receiving—"

Jane tone came fast and hushed. "Frankie?"

"Wha?"

Jane looked back at him but made sure to hold her flashlight in place near the lower part of the doorframe right below the doorknob. "That look like scratches to you?"

Frankie squatted and leaned in closer. "Yeah." He reached forward but Jane stopped him.

"Hold on, we gotta get CSU down here again."

"The initial photos didn't show this." He shook his head. "They did a sweep twice for anything remotely off." They both stood to their normal heights.

Jane pulled out her cell phone with one hand and motioned with her flashlight to the other. "Korask, I think we got our second guy, get down here… Yeah." She hung up before motioning to her brother and his tablet. "Put that damn thing away." She grabbed her gun. "Think you can kick this thing in?" She whispered lower this time while motioning the nose of her weapon at the door.

Frankie was already holding his firearm forward. "What? You can't?"

Jane regarded the door with her flashlight. "Well it should be unlocked at the bottom, but I'm pretty sure Knowles had a deadbolt."

"So we've got company if it's dead bolted." Jane nodded and looked around. There was only one way in and only way out, she supposed it made keeping someone captive fairly simple that way. None of the yellow crime scene tape had been disrupted nor were there any new tire marks on the ground around them that she could see. "Twenty bucks says you can't."

Jane looked back at him quickly. "You're on Momma's boy. On my count."

Frankie positioned himself so he could flank left once the door was opened. His heart was racing and his chest vibrated with it as a fluttering moment of childhood nostalgia of playing cops with Jane hit him then. "Say when, Janie."

##

Maura took a slow sip of her chamomile tea and blindly rested her mug back onto her coffee table later that night. She was clad in her silk pajama bottoms and a simple white shirt relaxing on her couch covered with a blanket indulging in some light bedtime reading when she heard the front door to her home began to jingle. Maura Isles looked up with a brief sense of reality as she realized she was alone at home until she realized no burglar would know her first door's security code or have the second door's key unless she had given it to them. The ME turned to the next page of _Enzyme Property_ a short story filled with bad puns and medical jokes written by a colleague of hers turned real estate broker. She chuckled softly at the illustration before looking up again when the front door was finally opened. She could make out the shuffling of bags and then a wooden drawer opening and being filled with something and then closing before Jane appeared looking rather sheepish and holding bags in both arms.

"You're still up." She was hoping by now Maura had just gone to sleep.

It was eleven forty five at night.

Way past seven.

Way way way past seven.

Maura smiled softy at her as she closed her book against her lap. "I was on my way." She tiled her head as Jane came to sit on the couch with all of her bags. "What's this?"

"Well." Jane began slowly. She took in Maura's relaxed features and realized with a sigh of relief that she wasn't upset. "I missed our thing." Jane looked around. "By a lot."

Maura nodded slowly. "Two lots."

Jane smiled at her apologetically. "By five lots even."

"What happened with Knowles?"

"We got him."

Maura nodded. "I knew you would."

"You didn't go to that class did you?"

Maura smiled. "No."

"We're rescheduled aren't we?"

"Absolutely."

Jane winced. "Saturday?"

"Eleven thirty."

"Before twelve!?"

Maura actually chuckled. "Jane."

"Alright alright, I'm just asking because unlike you Jettlag Junkie some people really do value their sleep."

"I can assure you I'm not enjoying this. I've maintained proper hydration for two days now and I still feel…awake." Maura sighed with her shoulders before changing her attention and leaning forward to peer into the bags at Jane's feet. "What have you brought me in apology?"

Jane smirked as she reached into the first bag. She was truly running fumes, but she was glad she decided to stop by the local grocery store before they closed because it had given her a chance to decompress after the vicious scene she and her brother had run into; suicide with a full written confession with details to the whereabouts of the other victims and a homicide: Knowles partner's last victim. Rose O'Grady, 22, she had still been warm when they found her meaning that though Jane had enough to put away a bad guy for good, one got away and took an innocent woman's life that could have been stopped.

It was a win tonight, but it felt like a loss to Jane.

She didn't want to be alone, and she also knew that the class that she had missed symbolized something between her and Maura, and once again the rescuing theme of her life's work getting in the way of her life floated to the surface and rippled slowly throughout her entire consciousness.

Jane rifled through the bag. "I brought hemp cookies, and gelato, and…" She continued through the bag and pulled out a six pack of beer. "Beer for me."

Maura chuckled and took the six pack away from her to place it on the table beside her favorite hemp cookies and the pear gelato. "Yes, of course."

"That was to cope if you weren't all too pleased with me." Jane joked as she continued to pull items out of the bags. Maura stilled. "And… let's see, oh! Those little cheese puffs made from peas and carrots. I wasn't sure which one would taste worse, so I got both…" Jane glanced at her and then did a double take when she realized Maura's face. "Hey listen, they didn't have beat flavor, I wasn't about to drive away from here to…What is it?"

"I have to tell you something." She regarded Jane seriously.

Jane straightened up and placed the bag of faux cheese puffs beside the six pack. "Alright."

"Your father stopped by today to see you…."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "Stopped by where? To see me where?"

She rested a hand on Jane's arm naturally in an effort to calm her. "The morgue—"

"How in the hell did he get to the morgue?"

"I'm not certain." Maura shook her head. "He had a visitors pass, Jane."

"Oh great, good, so any Joe off the street who may or may not be armed or who could just end up being a dead beat father can just stroll in there, go shopping in the evidence locker, tamper with evidence, fondle bodies whatever because they have a visitors pass!"

"Jane."

"Maura."

"Evidence wasn't tampered with and I assure you none of our guests were…fondled."

Jane tried to lower her temper some to match Maura's cool. "Did you call security?"

"He's your father."

"I don't care if he's Tom Brady—"

"—Angela has visited me in my office—"

"—Which she walks through from the other way. No one is supposed to go down the way the dead bodies do, that doesn't work for BPD, did you put in an incident report?"

Maura shook her head. Another procedure she had broken for Jane. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because Jane he just wanted to speak to you." Jane huffed. Maura furrowed her brows as she got lost in her own emotions on the matter. It had complexly inconvenienced her autopsy schedule and she was left feeling emotionally exhausted and not to mention a little insecure afterward. "You had just gone up to leave and I was distracted while working and thought it was you initially—"

"How?"

"You have a strikingly similar heel toe strike pattern…well stomp really."

Jane sank back into the couch. "Great."

"I tried calling you."

The detective ran a hand through her hair with recognition. "Frankie and I were on a scene…" She looked over at Maura suddenly cooling down fully and reevaluating the situation. She was way too tired to stay at that height for long, but she damn sure wasn't going to let this slide. Jane lazily cast a hand out to Maura's leg and covered her knee. "Did he wreck anything? Spill anything?"

Maura shook her head before resting a hand on top of Jane's. "We had a coffee, and I escorted him upstairs."

"That's it? Are you okay?"

Maura nodded. "I'm fine."

Jane nodded slowly to herself before looking to Maura again and shaking her knee gently. "What'd you guys talk about?"

"How much he loves you." Maura smiled at her knowing her answer would cause one of Jane's classic eye rolls.

"Barf, was he drunk?"

"…"

"Maura." Jane raised a brow. " _Maura_." Her name climbed a decibel and earned an extra syllable.

"No, he was not drunk."

Jane removed her hand from Maura's knee to support herself sitting up on the couch. Okay so they were playing this game again. "Well in your professional medical opinion had he seemed as though he might have maybe had a few to drink?"

"…It's possible…." Jane crossed her arms. "Yes, it seemed so; however I don't think he was heavily intoxicated." Jane exhaled slowly and loudly before running a hand down her face. "Save that for Saturday." Maura tried to joke but Jane just remained in a state of concentration. "Tomorrow." She tried again softly before running her right hand along the detective's back from shoulder to shoulder. She hated seeing her like this.

Jane took her head from her hands to look over at her friend. The gentleness of her touch was welcome but she couldn't help but maintain her agitation. "He can't just show up to my job drunk and harass you, Maura."

She did see how that could be unsustainable for their father daughter relationship. "I didn't feel harassed."

Jane snorted softly. "It's not okay, even if you say it is. It's clear we need ground rules here. He needs to know he can't just push his way back into our lives."

"How long is he in town for?" She took her hand away from comforting Jane who looked at her curiously in response before nodding to herself when Maura used it to reach for her tea.

"He told you about that job huh?"

"Yes." She took a sip and motioned to it. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thanks though." Jane relaxed back onto the couch and sighed again. "He's going to New York in a few weeks."

"Permanently?"

Jane shrugged as she looked at the ceiling fan. "I guess so, but we were permanent and he didn't have us around long?"

"Well this would mean there is room for a relationship of some kind. You had a happy childhood and he was a large part of the reason why. You don't have to reconcile the past because of how things are now."

"I know…." She looked over at her quickly as a small smile played at her lips. "Thanks, Dr. Phil."

Maura shook her head in slight amusement Jane was defecting but she would let her for now. "I am only trying to help."

"I know Maur… Thank you, for getting him coffee and…y'know listening to his crap for me. You did do it for me right?"

"Well yes, firstly." She nodded but it began to slow; a telltale sign that the doctor had anterior thoughts that borderlined misinformation.

Jane quirked an eyebrow. "Firstly?"

"I was sick with varicella for my rotation on family planning and social work, there was a lecture on addictions that week too that had turned out to be fascinating or so I heard." She shrugged before taking another sip.

Jane just stared at her not knowing where to even begin. Something tugged at her brain's collar though to tell her that Maura was messing with her yet again, the doctor had been getting eerily good at sarcasm. Jane knew she could only blame herself. "Ok what is varicella? But before you even go full google you cannot study my family dynamics by entertaining my drunk father, Maura."

She chuckled. "It wasn't my first motivation, Jane that was you."

"What'd you grow elf ears and a fever or something?"

"It's commonly known as chickenpox." Jane made a face. "I contracted it rather late in life."

"Hm."

"It was rather uncomfortable."

"Ma put Tommy, Frankie and I in a tub together so we'd all get it as kids, had it for a few days and then it was gone."

She took another sip of her tea. "I don't think showering with my other fellows would yield much of a cure."

Jane nodded. "Nah I don't think so."

"Everything will be clear in the morning you know." She could still see the worry on Jane's face. It nestled itself right underneath the bags under her eyes. "Think of all the good you have done today instead." She nudged the taller woman softly.

Jane nodded slowly but then shrugged as if convincing herself of a job well done was just too much. She rubbed at her hands for a moment before looking over at Maura. "Y'know I'm starting to feel as though maybe I made a mistake in turning down the full time position with the FBI." Maura didn't say anything at first which caught Jane's attention. She reached a hand out to her knee again. "Maura." She said quietly as they locked eyes. "You know I would miss you too much to last there anyway right?"

Maura chuckled softly, her cheeks flushed under Jane's intense gaze. "That wasn't why I hesitated to respond, Jane."

Jane blushed now too. "Oh." She moved to move her hand but Maura quickly put her right hand over Jane's left to keep it against her knee. "You know sometimes I don't think you know how magnificent you are, not just to me." Jane looked away shyly but then forced herself to look back at the doctor. Maura had the same look in her eyes she did at the airport; Jane didn't really have one set word for it but the detective decided then that she liked it. She liked when Maura looked at her like she was proud of her, it sounded cheesy but it honestly made her feel special, and when you were special to a woman who literally knew everything that had to mean something right?

"You're not going to kiss me again are you?" Jane teased if only to get a handle on the butterflies in her stomach that such a look caused. How could she feel so comfortable with someone yet so off balance at the same time?

Maura chuckled. "Jane."

"What? I just had this sandwich with all these onion for dinner—"

Maura shook Jane's a hand on her knee vigorously to get her attention. "What I am trying to say is that you love being a cop and though I agree that you should not close yourself off to other opportunities, you know in your heart what makes you happy, and it's your work. Everyone sees that, everyone who you help is impacted by that."

Jane sighed "I'm missing so much though—"

"Like?"

"TJ, and and more Sox games…and I'll probably miss my brother's wedding, and when you become a famous author book readings in all the languages you know." They laughed. "I don't know Maura, I just feel like even though we won, we lost, how do I deal with that? It used to never be an issue…"

Maura pursed her lips together thoughtfully. "…Loosing interest in the things you normally enjoy…"

Jane pulled her hand away from Maura's knee only to get up from the couch and pad into the kitchen. Once there she yanked open a drawer and pulled out two spoons. "I'm not depressed, Maura."

"Well something is obviously creating a chemical imbalance that is making you feel this way." She watched Jane come back into the living room and plop down on the couch beside her.

"I thought feelings were just feelings." She reached for the sweating pint of pear gelato and fought to open it. "Sometimes you have good ones and sometimes you have bad ones."

"That's a very elementary way of thinking of them." Maura took the pint away from her when she noted the continuous struggle and twisted it open easily. "And you are eating yours."

Jane snatched the container back playfully before digging into it with one of her spoons. "My doctor says I should gain weight anyway." Jane closed her eyes briefly as the sweet and pleasantly tart ice melted like butter on her tongue. She motioned the container toward Maura and the other woman hesitated before reaching for the second spoon.

"Well if it would make you feel any better I have moments where I wonder how long I will do the work that I do now."

Jane raised a brow as she rolled the gelato around on her tongue. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes certainly." Jane motioned the pint in her direction again and she paused to scoop out a reasonable amount. "I've always envisioned a dynamic life for myself. "

"Well we're not getting any younger are we?"

"No, but that doesn't mean anything really right?" She reached for another scoop over Jane's arm. "If we were programed to age and stop learning new things physiologically speaking the brain would stop all production of valuable learning synapses instead of slow them some." Jane watched as Maura sucked gently on her spoon as she relaxed into the sofa. "The last well-funded study on learning done at BCU by Morgan and Davis was conducted about a year ago and though it yielded promising results on the body under duress and learning it yielded very little on the longevity of those neurological connections. It's interesting because no matter how old the subject was learning universally was nearly impossible without a tranquility of the mind. Children had difficulty sustaining attention leading to poor results and adults with more emotional control were able to access a level of meditation while learning which implies nothing but positive connections between aging and learning…" She paused and looked over at Jane. "I'll send you the article."

Jane was still working her way through the first thousand she had sent to her personal email account. The detective reached for the pint of gelato that somehow made it into the shorter woman's hands. "Learn good. Stress bad."

Maura chuckled. "It was an interesting article."

"Mhm." Jane shook her head and smiled to herself as she moved about a chunk of stewed Anjou inlay. "Thanks." She said suddenly when she looked up at Maura's face. "You googling somehow always makes me feel better."

Maura shrugged gently and watched Jane go back to her gelato. "You know what?"

She was caught working on a particularly large mouthful. "Hm?"

"I think you are the only person to think so."

Jane paused to finish her mouthful before wiping the back of her hand across her mouth much to the medical examiner's dismay. "Well everyone else is crazy Maura, you know that."

She smiled. "Yes."

"Good."

"Some actually were crazy,"

Jane chuckled. "I think the craziest by far was _Byron_. Ugh! Just thinking about him again makes me want to ditch this and grab some kale, _just_ so I never ever have to see 'us' again."

Maura laughed. "Really? Not the actually mentally disturbed Dennis Rockman?" She shivered at the memory but successfully hid it from the other woman.

Jane put her socked feet up on the coffee table and waved her spoon. "Mmm…..yeah no, Byron was worse."

"Byron was actually very sweet."

"Stop it."

"He was." Maura reached for the pint from Jane. "You never gave him a chance."

Jane beckoned for the container back once Maura had her spoonful. "Maura because he has seen me naked, and he has literally cut into my body AND because he says everything like he's talking to a toddler."

"When you are sick you _are_ a toddler."

Jane licked her spoon. "I wasn't sick."

"You shot yourself in the stomach, Jane."

Jane fished for more stewed pear in the pint and shrugged. "Eh."

Maura shook her head. "Unbelievable, you know maybe I should call him?"

Jane continued her hunt. "Psh, he's not taking you back." Maura jabbed her playfully in the arm. "Ow!" Jane glared back.

"That didn't hurt."

Jane's glare turned smirk. "You're right, unless you think a million pillows are painful."

"Ninety percent of strangulation with pillows were successful." She warned.

Jane shook her head. "You're lying."

"I am not."

Jane laughed and motioned to a spot on Maura's chin with her spoon. "Hive."

"That's not a hive!" They grinned at one another "It's a premenstrual hormonal imbalance that causes—"

"Ah! Maura no period talk while I'm eating."

" _My_ gelato by the way." She grabbed the container back and dug her spoon in.

Jane watched her fondly, Maura ate like a bird, but when she was sad or on her way to get a visit it was always so amusing to the detective. "So if you get your period we don't have to go on Saturday right?"

"On the contrary." The doctor said in between bites. "A good meditation can be better than most over the counter pain relievers."

Jane snorted because she was pretty sure Maura was the only woman on the planet to think so. "Yeah well my old man is truly going to need to sign up for a year long circuit after I speak to him."

Maura frowned a little. "Jane, it's really fine."

She shook her head. "It isn't. He knows how I feel about you, why can't he—"

"He does?"

Jane looked at her. "Huh?"

Maura was slow to rest the pint of gelato down. "Does he know how you feel about me?"

Jane met her unsure gaze and shrugged softly as she put her hands together and leaned them against her knees. "Doesn't everyone?"

Maura blinked. "I…don't think so." Did everyone know?

"C'mon they have to by now."

She grew confused. "By now?"

Jane nodded. "You're my best friend Maura, if anyone messes with you they mess with me, and there is a reason why people don't mess with me." She nodded surely but then paused. "Oh…." Her palms grew slightly damp. "No I…uh…I'm… you…." She clamped her mouth closed and looked back at her hands. "I don't think anyone knows about…. _that_."

Maura blushed despite herself. "That?"

Jane shook her head at herself and then waved a little. "Yeah y'know, that difference and all the um." She gulped hard and looked at her. "Differences."

"Bass knows."

Jane couldn't help but chuckle. "Damn turtle knows everything."

"Tortiose."

"Right."

"Robert asked me out."

Jane winced gently to recall the name. Ah the pilot. She wasn't sure what her face was saying now, but she could feel the familiar sting of jealousy that had been occurring for the past year now whenever Maura would mention a new guy. When presented with an opportunity to acknowledge it Jane gulped it quickly hoping it wouldn't burn on the way down. "The pilot."

"I turned him down."

"You should have said yes. You never know—"

"Jane all I could think about on the flight back was seeing you."

They fell quiet for solid minute.

"I missed you." Jane finally confessed before looking at the doctor squarely. "I know that much."

"Accepting his offer felt wrong."

Jane looked back to her hands. "So…"

"Perhaps you can take me out instead." Jane looked up at her and read her seriousness before seeing it slip into an endearing embarrassment. She hadn't meant to say it. "An experiment of sorts.' Maura recovered.

The idea made Jane chuckle. "What like dinner and a movie in lab coats?"

"It could be fun."

"Or a disaster."

"How will we know?"

Jane allowed herself to entertain the idea along with several other scenarios. Logically Maura was right; they were too close to pretend that they didn't know the other, too close to pretend that what was happening between them wasn't confusing, too close to really be negatively affected by something they would normally do together anyway but with a different title. Jane let herself smile a little. "Alright, an experiment."


	6. Chapter 6

Jane watched suspiciously from her post leaning over Maura's kitchen island and sipping on coffee as her mother and best friend moved about in their morning routine quietly. Maura was wearing a professional red dress today with a black blazer and heels that clicked softly as she moved from her leather briefcase to the island where a small stack of manila folders with the county's Medical Examiner's seal on them sat. Her mother was humming something familiar to the detective but unrecognizable and washing her coffee mug off. Jane took another sip of her coffee but made sure to keep an eye on them as she did so.

Since when did they have a rhythm?

"Oh Angela, I'll get those." Maura clicked over to where her mother stood at the sink and they fought politely over who would wash out the breakfast plates a moment before Maura was cast away to continue getting ready for work. Jane tossed her a smirk to which Maura frowned at in response.

If she thought she was getting in the way of Angela Rizzoli and her morning putzing around she was wrong.

"Now Jane I want you to know that I won't be washing your dish." Angela announced.

Jane's smirk fell as she looked away from Maura who had just tossed her a smirk of her own. "What? What'd I do?"

"Nothing, that's the problem."

Jane took a sip from her mug and motioned to the sink confidently. "I fixed the sink that one time, I take out the garbage every week, _and_ I just sprayed a bunch of bedbugs just a few days ago!"

Maura shook her head quickly. "There were no bedbugs."

Angela turned back to her daughter. "You come over and you make a mess all over the place, you're lucky Maura is so kind, this isn't your house you know."

Jane shook her head. "It's not your house either, _Ma_."

"Wipe up will you?" She tossed Jane a sponge. "You have crumbs all over that counter. It'll attract…." Angela looked to Maura.

Maura closed her briefcase and smiled. "Under the Kingdom Animalia, cockroaches belong to the Phylum Arthropoda, Class Insecta, and Order Blattodea. The Order name is derived from the Greek blatta. Which is fascinating because it also means—"

"Maura." Jane cut off.

Maura continued her smile. "A little wipe up wouldn't hurt, hurry though. We'll be late." She had a busy day today.

Jane just looked at her in disbelief. "I'm getting chores now, really?"

"Maybe it will Impart some responsibility." Maura smirked behind her Angela's back.

"Exactly!" Angela agreed from her spot at the sink.

Jane glared at the shorter woman across the room and put the sponge and her mug down. "You better go ahead of me, this may take a while." Maura chuckled and brought her briefcase over to the island and watched as Jane wiped up her toast crumbs into her hand. "Plus I'm riding in with Frankie today." Jane's tone was hushed.

Maura leaned in a little. "Is it the case?" She whispered back.

Jane shook her head and motioned it to her mother. "No. Some other Rizzoli thing."

"What are you two always whispering about?" Angela asked.

"Case stuff, Ma." Jane looked back at Maura. "We'll be taking a personal morning." She whispered before tossing the rest of her crumbs in the garbage.

Maura nodded slowly. "Do you think that's wise?"

"No, but you know what? Not thinking must be in our genes or something, because he sure as hell wasn't thinking when he snuck into the morgue." She whispered back determined.

Maura watched her for a moment but then nodded. "Goodbye Angela." She called.

"You girls coming to the bar tonight? It's bingo night."

"Oh how fun." Maura nodded and then looked to Jane. "Call me."

Jane nodded. "I will." They hesitated a moment. "Drive safe." Jane added. Maura smiled and turned to leave. After polishing off the pint of gelato last night the two separated to their respective spaces and when Jane came down for breakfast that morning clad in her grey slacks and a white button down her mother and Maura were already chit-chatting over expresso and biscotti. Jane wasn't sure if it was right but she felt a little annoyed at her mother's presence. She wanted to ask Maura where she wanted to go on this experimental date, ask if she wanted to go this coming Friday, or maybe in a few months? Jane groaned quietly as Maura waved before closing the front door behind her. How were they playing this? Why? The idea of it all sounded all fuzzy and amusing last night but now in the light of day Jane was left wondering if she could actually afford to date Maura, experimental or otherwise, and then what did that mean? Were they dating? Experimenting? Was she going to kiss her again? That part wasn't such a bad thought but what did that mean if they started kissing each other? What if Maura still wanted to date men too? Was she gay? Was Maura gay? Did it even really matter? She was filled with an anxiety she hadn't known since wearing her first bra and honestly the only person she trusted to help her adjust her straps without leaving her lopsided was Maura.

But Maura was the reason she were putting the damn thing on in the first place!

Jane shook her head at herself.

"What's wrong sweetheart? You have that look about you."

The homicide detective had forgotten she wasn't alone. To buy some time she took a big gulp of her coffee and then wondered briefly if she could confide in her mother before chasing that idea straight out the window and into oncoming traffic.

"Frankie's late."

Angela dried off a dish. "It's love, Jane. Be patient with him."

Jane snorted. "Love?"

"You soon forget all your responsibilities until suddenly you remember a bill that needs to be paid or laundry."

"We have thing to do, I have things to do."

"You can't be so fast all the time you know. Sometimes in life you have to take your time and enjoy yourself." She reached for another wet dish and began to dry it. "You'll miss something. Have some more biscotti."

Jane shifted her weight. She didn't feel like eating anything. "What if I just catch it?'

Angela looked up. "Hm?"

She turned to her mother and rested her mug down on the island. "Like what if I almost missed it but then I realize that I almost missed it and… now I'm in it, but I've never gone this way before, this route… So I don't really know how to…enjoy it. How to go fast…or slow."

Angela stopped drying. "What are we talking about, Janie?"

Jane brought her mug to her mouth quickly. "Nothing, Ma."

"Are you sure?" She crossed her arms and tilted her head.

"Yeah."

Angela resumed her drying. "Well I would say." She looked over at her pointedly. "To this thing you won't tell your only mother-"

"For the love of—"

"—I would say that you take your time and start to learn how to enjoy yourself on this route… Smell the flowers; maybe take a day off from work. La vita non è una gara a una pista." She nodded.

Just outside a motorcycle engine could be heard roaring up the street. Jane grabbed her keys before moving to kiss her mother goodbye. "Thanks Ma."

"For what? My wisdom or breakfast?" She held her daughters shoulders lovingly.

Jane smirked. "Breakfast."

Angela laughed and released her. "Go, get outta here before you make more of a mess." Jane tugged her ponytail affectionately. "Go!"

Frankie was backing his bike up to park in front of Maura's home when Jane finally stepped outside. She contemplated going back inside and getting a coat but decided against it. The mooring breeze would soon warm and right now it felt more invigorating than uncomfortable.

"Hey!" Frankie called over the hum the engine before cutting it off.

Jane stopped on the sidewalk and examined him in his suit and leather jacket. "You look like a biker gigolo." Not to mention he'd probably smell like oil all day.

Frankie chuckled as he got off the bike and tucked his helmet under his arm. "Maura and I are going to a road show this weekend. Thought I'd leave this here till then."

"Road show? When?"

"On Sunday." He began to take off his riding gloves. "Ma in there? She cook?" He darted his head around Jane to see if he could spot their mother at the door.

"Yes, but not for you, c'mon we'll grab something on the way." Frankie frowned. "Really?"

"Hey I didn't have breakfast okay?"

"Why because you're in love?"

"Wha?"

"Don't you think it's a little wrong that the only reason you want to see our mother is because you didn't eat breakfast?" They made their way over to Jane's unmarked.

"No…"

Jane shook her head in amusement. "Where's this thing on Sunday?" How come Maura never mentioned it?

"Cambridge, we planned it a little while ago, we usually end up doing something when you and Nina are on call together."

Jane furrowed her brows a bit before nodding slowly. "Holiday and I are on-call." She remembered. She had remembered Frankie and Maura going to a few games or hanging with her mother, but why did this information of a standing thing surprise her? Maybe she was just being sensitive.

"Yup, no way I'm hanging around here. Ma and her wedding planning, Tommy freaking out cause Lidia's coming to town and Pop—"

Jane stopped him physically and verbally. "Lidia and our father are going to be in the same city… "

Frankie looked as if he were going to correct her but then shook his head and threw his hand up in surrender. "You can't write this stuff!"

Jane opened her car and jumped into the driver's seat. "Add it to the agenda."

##

Nina Holiday had a favorite, Frank Rizzoli Jr, he was funny, sweet, had a great smile, and had the unmissable feeling of home. It was how she knew she could not only marry him, but be his partner in crime-fighting for a long long time. He didn't look half bad shirtless either.

It hadn't taken her long at BPD to realize that Maura had a favorite too.

Jane.

Though their conversations together on those early mornings when she and the detective hadn't carpooled seldom revolved around the lean woman, Nina could tell they cared for one another a great deal more than their title as besties permitted, maybe not in the scandalized version in her head that had them being secret lovers, but there was an honest to goodness magnetic charge between them that anyone worth their badge could see.

Frankie never indulged her theories, but he never denied them either.

"There is just something about the smell of motor oil—"

Nina laughed. "You two are a match made in heaven."

Maura grew confused. "Has Frankie said something similar?" The two were seated in the bullpen's tiny windowless breakroom. The small room smelt lightly of burnt coffee and worn plastic but the detectives had all chipped in for a new coffee maker that made a mean latte if Maura did say so herself.

She'd never admit it aloud though. At least not to Jane anyway.

"The exact same thing, Maura. He even had that far off look in his eye, more power to the both of you." She shook her head. "While you guys are inhaling noxious fumes and joining motorcycle gangs Jane and I will be sitting here staring at the phones waiting for a cat to get stuck in a tree."

Maura chuckled and brought her latte to her lips before pulling it away. "Will you take Rizzoli as a surname?" She wondered aloud.

Nina laughed at the random topic. "Nina Holiday Rizzoli sounds like a cheap steakhouse somewhere." Maura laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty attached to it."

"I've always found the idea of taking another name to be so archaic, but…"

"But also a little fun right?"

Maura began to smile and leaned forward. "Yes, absolutely. You can create an entirely different identity."

Nina chuckled before taking a sip of her coffee. The breakroom fell quiet and the beginning rumblings of a waking police precinct began to sound. "They never take off. I think Frankie will want to work up until the last hour before the ceremony."

Maura nodded slowly. "Jane has a gross amount of paid leave."

"They went to see their father right? Frank Sr.?"

"Yes, it was the only thing Jane would say about the whole thing." She didn't regret telling her, but she didn't like to see her friend worry herself like this.

"Frankie won't talk about him much either…"

"It's a sore subject for them."

"Do you think wanting to meet him on my part will be a bad idea?"

"No." Maura said simply.

"Frankie won't say it but I know he's against it… I can't help but wonder why."

Maura shook her head. "Oh Nina I don't think it's because of you."

Nina smiled at the ME. "I'm just so nervous-excited!" They laughed at her animation. "After Chicago I never thought I'd find someone, hell I knew I wasn't looking but here this man is and I just want to know everything about him, I can't help it. Even the bad." She leaned on her elbow and regarded Maura carefully. "Do you ever feel that way about someone? You just want to know them, want…more for them, from them?"

Maura hesitated before nodding. "I can understand the feeling. It's mm, a fascinating human emotion; there haven't been many studies in the field of emotions like that." She took a sip of her coffee. "Unfortunately." She smiled almost shyly.

Nina nodded. "An enchantment."

Maura tilted her head suddenly. " _Yes_." She nodded as if the word were the only word in the world and she had somehow forgotten it until now.

Nina bit her lip before smiling back, she had just been gifted with a window to ask about Jane but something in her gut told her to wait. Maybe it was the concentrated look in the doctor's features, or the knowledge that soon they would have to wait in line for a coffee, but she were fairly certain it was something more. Nina stood from her seat and motioned to the new caffine-o-matic. "It also makes a really good matcha, do you want to split one?"

She stood as well. "We've had enough caffeine for a small army."

Nina moved her hand from hovering over the small paper cups to the larger ones. "So a large then?"

Maura chuckled. "Count me in."

##

Frank opened the door to his hotel and couldn't decide if he wanted to smile or frown. "You two look like undertakers." He moved aside so his two adult children could enter the room he had rented in a hotel not too far from the docks. The smell of the pier reminded him of growing up in a poorer area nearby.

Frankie looked about the messy hotel room and looked over to Jane who was doing her own surveying of the land. No liquor bottles, but old take-out containers and piles of clothes were strewn about as if he had decided to organize them only to give up half way. Jane felt a pang of guilt in her chest but then crossed her arms over it to keep it from slipping away when she noticed something. On the flat panel tv in the corner the news played on low volume.

He still watched the news.

Her father had said once that the second she told him she wanted to go to the police academy he turned on the news and seldom watched anything but it, it was his way of looking out for her, for them.

"Where's your brother?" Frank asked as he closed the door behind him. He saw the look on his daughter's face. "What happened to him?"

"Nothing happened to him, Pop." Frankie pushed aside some clothes off of a chair and took a seat.

"What happened to this place? You don't have some woman to clean up after you now?" Jane asked with her arms still crossed.

Frank Sr. shook his head. "You two obviously have something to say, so just say it."

Jane nodded. "Leave Maura out of our crap, okay?"

Frank gave her an odd look then. "This is about Maura? You two coming in here ready to take me to my hanging is about that woman?"

"That woman?" Jane growled.

Frankie stood quickly and unconsciously put himself between his father and older sister. "Listen Pop you can't just show up at our job, wasted, and somehow weasel your way into the morgue during a live autopsy and take up her time, she doesn't have to deal with this alright. If you want to talk to us, call us."

"I made a mistake—"

"—That's not an excuse." Frankie cut in.

Jane's nodded, her temper still climbing steadily. "Normally you'd be arrested."

"If that's what you two are here to do then just do it already. I made a mistake!" Frank Sr. threw up his hands. He had just gotten a rather unpleasant phone call and wasn't in the mood to be lectured by the only two people whose asses he had literally wiped.

"How many times are you going to use that as an excuse?" Jane asked. "How many times are we going to have to cover for you, how many times are other people going to have to cover for you?"

"Cover for me? Who's covering for me?"

Jane flung an arm out pointing in the general direction of the precinct. " _That woman_ , wasn't even going to tell me you were drunk—"

Frank shook his head. "Janie, I wasn't drunk, and if she told you that she was lying. I came to talk to you, we had coffee. Is that what she said?"

"She can't lie!"

Frankie side stepped so Jane couldn't move around him. "Pop are you saying right now that Maura is lying?"

Frank shrugged. He hadn't really meant to say it, but hell, if it was getting him out of this rapidly deteriorating situation then sure, she lied. "Yeah, saying I was drunk, why would she say that huh?" He pointed at Jane. "Maybe to drive a wedge between this family, you ever consider that?"

Jane had finally made it around her brother. Her jaw was locked and her eyes ablaze. She never thought she would look at her father with such an intense feeling of hatred but here she was. Staring him down, feeling everything: all the confusing feelings for Maura, her love for her mother, for their family and what it was and what it now became. The guilt, the anger, the pain of it all swelled in her belly and Jane Rizzoli knew she could only do one thing, and that was leave, because she knew if she were to stay tempering this feeling into action it would only bring negative consequences. ""The only person driving a wedge between this family is you, and your bullshit, Pop, and if you come near _that woman_ again I _will_ arrest you." She rasped before storming out of the room.

For a half beat both men stood there listening to Jane's boots down the hall.

"Frank—"

"Save it." Frankie exhaled and shook his head at his father before following after Jane. He paused at the door. "Oh, I'm getting married." He announced before slamming the door behind him.

##

Jane stormed into the morgue fifty two minutes later.

"Well hello." Kent chuckled into his microphone. He was standing over a body of a balding man mid autopsy. He switched the microphone off and stood up straight. "You're looking very determined today, Detective."

His presence threw her off. "Uh, where's Mau—Dr. Isles?"

"The locker room." He motioned with his clipboard down a hall. It's what they called the tall and unbelievably impersonal room where they kept the dead bodies in their rolling shelf lockers.

Jane was losing courage fast, she could feel it seeping out of her pours spilling all over her clothes and boots making her feel embarrassed at her own internal image of herself. With a quick nod in thanks to the Scottish man Jane took a step forward and then another and then another until she were in the hall.

Maura looked up quickly from the body she was returning when she heard the door to the locker room grant access to someone.

"Jane."

"I need to talk to you." She made sure the door was closed behind her before lingering there and then stepping fully into the tight space and up to the shorter woman in her lab coat as far as the dead body between them would permit. Jane braced herself against one of the lockers with an outstretched right arm and opened palm. She hoped the action made her look confident.

Maura noted the slight bit of moisture at Jane's neck and wondered then if she had run here or if she were simply perspiring out of a nervous system response to a mental stressor.

"You're worrying me." She decided.

"I don't mean to."

Maura examined her a moment longer. "So what do you mean to do?" It was less of a question more of something else.

"You're not just some woman. To my family, to me, you know that right?" Maura nodded slowly. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

The ME carefully pushed the body of Beatrice Dowdy back into her temperature controlled tomb thus clearing the obstructed space between them. She slipped her hands into her deep lab coat pockets and took a step closer to the taller woman. "Has something happened?" Jane took a small step back.

"No... I don't know."

"No, you don't know?"

Jane let her left hand run through her hair before returning it to her side; her right remained planting her firmly onto the wall. "I just wanted to tell you that."

"Right this moment?"

"Yes, Maura." Jane groaned and the shorter woman smiled. "Alright? We good here?"

Maura let out a small augh as Jane began to try and leave the room. "Jane. That hardly seems like a conversation."

"What?"

"You said you needed to talk to me, are you sure there is nothing else on your mind?"

Jane turned back with one hand on the door. "There's plenty of stuff on my mind." She shrugged. "But we're at work." She shrugged again. "Bad guys first, then—" She waved at the space between them. "Our um—"

"Our date."

"Experiment."

Maura nodded, she wanted to chuckle but decided to hold it. If there wasn't a door in the room she was sure Jane would start climbing the wall. "Yes."

Jane nodded more to herself before swinging her body around to leave. "Alright I'll let you get back to your dead people."

When Jane finally sat down at her own desk a wave of exhaustion hit her. She reclined in her seat and drummed a hand on the wooden surface making sure to avoid the stack of paperwork waiting in front of her. Korsak and Frankie were processing the last location of Knowles victim for more of Frankie's field work evaluation and since Frankie was a Rizzoli Jane had to sit the training out and begin to tackle their work here. With a puff of air signifying her resignation to the task the detective leaned forward and opened the manila folder on her desk to begin.

Eight minutes had passed before the Medical Examiner came up.

She sighed thoughtfully at Maura signature at the bottom of a medical note on one of the victim's autopsy. Without even knowing what the shorter woman looked like Jane was certain you could gather all that was Maura in her signature. The curl of her "L's" and the neat tucked in "S" tails.

 _All I could think about on the flight back was seeing you._

Maura had said it last night.

Jane flicked her pen against the base of her computer keyboard. It was funny wasn't it? Maura not being able to think about a romp with a sexy pilot because she was thinking of her. It was almost just as funny as Jane losing all real ability to focus on anything but the ME when she was away.

And now.

It didn't feel like a crush, no, Jane knew what it felt like to be engulfed in the flurry of infatuation that came with a crush. This was not that, this was…bazar and familiar, both exhilarating and frightening.

Maura was her best friend, but Jane had stormed into her workspace just now with the full intent to kiss her.

What did that mean?

She had been reactive after seeing her father; maybe she was just transcribing that height to something else.

Jane huffed at herself as she continued to flick her pen on her desk and turn to another page that needed her notes. She had filled out these reports so many times before that the task was almost automatic, just a different scene of the crime, a different offender, a different victim, different officers on scene, lead investigator was always she or Korsak, secondary investigator was always she or Korsak…

So was that gay? Was she gay?

Jane ran a hand through her hair.

Did she want to touch Maura? if she wanted to kiss her, if she had had that urge surely she wanted more right? Anyone would right? Maura was a beautiful woman, gorgeous really….

Holding her too?

Jane nodded a little to herself at the safer footing. She had held Maura close before, not romantically or anything but even then she could recall feeling a sense of calm and purpose.

Of course Jane would want to hold her if she needed it.

She'd do anything for her.

Including arresting her own father.

The work day worked much like that until around five. Jane focusing on a detail one moment, another question or thought popping in the next. It wasn't the most productive work day but for once Jane was glad to be sitting at the desk for it. There was no way she would be able to do this in the field, this back and forth or lack of attentions, it could get someone hurt. She needed to get a handle on things, take a mental inventory, reassess, because this thought process and work pattern couldn't continue.

"Alright good, I'll make sure they get to the lab." Jane spoke into her cellphone as she made her way down the hall and to the elevator that evening.

"Perfect, we'll be done here in another twenty or so. Will we see you at bingo?" Korsak asked.

"Um." Jane pressed the call button and shifted her weight. "I think I'm going to the gym and then home tonight. Get some rest."

"Are you sick?"

Jane chuckled. "No, but I know tomorrow when this whole thing breaks we're going to have channel seven news so far up our asses they'll be able to see the bags under my eyes from the inside." She stepped into the elevator.

Vince laughed a big laugh. It made Jane smile. "Good point."

They hung up just in time for the elevator doors to close and start the questionably hasty trip down to the sub-basement level of the building where the BPD basketball court and gym was. After her two hour long work out Jane was feeling better. She was sure there was some scientific explanation that Maura had probably shared with her on several occasions but Jane didn't really mind not knowing right now. What she did know was that she had feelings for her best friend that toppled the normal every day misconnection, she had to stop putting off filling out the human resources profile online for the FBI, and unless he was ill again Jane saw no reason to speak to her father about anything. Lying about Maura had been the last straw.

If he were desperate enough to lie like that she probably would only be setting herself up for more disappointment.

##

Jane unceremoniously tossed her suit and dress shirt on the ground of her apartment when she finally got home from the precinct later that night. She had had just enough time to work out and then receive the findings report from Kent from the eighth victim's resting place in a grocery store ventilation system closet before calling it a night.

Jane placed the findings report on her dark wooden table before showering and changing into plaid pajama bottoms and a loose tank top and returning to it with a beer. She scanned the report and leaned back in her kitchen chair as she thought. How was it possible that no one smelled the decomposing body? Had they really not needed anything from that utility closet? She re-read the report twice and scratched the back of her head before reaching for her cell phone.

Maura's breath came over slightly ragged. "Dr. Isles."

Jane chuckled. "Am I interrupting something?" She sounded far away.

Maura took another slow breath before finishing her sun salutation. "Hot Yoga."

Jane checked the time. "At ten at night? You still having sleeping problems?"

"With the introduction of heat to meditative practices—"

"You scramble your brain so it passes you out to recover?"

Maura smiled as she moved into another stretch. "Something along those lines."

"Alright well here is another one for you; I thought cell phones weren't allowed in the dojo?"

"Wensa."

"Wha?"

"A dojo is dedicated to the practice of martial art forms; a Wensa is a quiet meditation space away from society and constant busyness…." Maura blinked a bead of sweat away from her eye.

"Alright well why are electronics in your Wednesday?"

Maura smirked. "Wensa." She reaped in a calm and drawn out way as if chiming.

Jane nodded. "Wennnssaaa."

Maura exhaled shortly, Jane had officially broken her meditation with her goofiness. The doctor leaned forward and took the other woman off of speaker phone and then brought the phone to her ear before lying on her back in a modified corpse pose. "You said you would call and you hadn't yet."

'You go to bingo?" She took a sip of her beer.

"After my book club."

"How was that?"

Maura rolled her eyes. "They voted on another fiction novel by Noel Porter. I don't think I could choke down another one of her books."

Jane shook her head in amusement. "I meant bingo."

"Oh." Maura smiled a little at her own expense. "Lovely, you were missed." She could hear the subtle slosh of liquid, probably a beer. "Where were you?"

"Gym."

"How is that helping with the depre—?"

"Maura,"

"—Mild agitation?"

"Well it was more like full agitation really, with my Pop… anyway that's not why I called."

"I specifically remembered agreeing to speak about just that."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "You could be specifically wrong."

Maura shrugged. "I don't think I am."

"Well I don't want to talk about him…" Jane looked at the folder open in front of her and played with a folded tab.

"Okay." Maura turned her head and looked at Jane's tennis shoes on the rack in the corner beside her own. She ran her free hand up her side thoughtfully. "What do you want to talk about, Jane?"

Jane looked at her folder and the eight symbol word she had used as her initial excuse. She closed it and took a small breath. "Find anything cool inside a body today?"

Maura fought her smile. "A paperclip."

Jane played with the string of her pajamas. "No way."

"Not the COD but fascinating regardless, the body's trace metals altered it some. Did you know you could live a perfectly normal life with about twenty eight cents hidden in compacted stool?"

Jane snorted suddenly mid swig resulting in a thin spill on her tank top. "See the problem is you don't even know you're being gross." She dabbed at it with a dry portion of her shirt.

"Stool can be very telling."

 _ **Two Hours Later…**_

"I don't know what that will be like for TJ…."

"They don't have much of a relationship as is." Jane had moved to lie on her back on the ground of her living room floor a half hour ago when Maura explained its posture correcting faculties. Their voices had hushed with the deepening of the night to mere murmurings.

"I think you're doing the right thing, Jane."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

A long moment of comfortable silence passed them before Maura spoke quietly into the phone.

"Are you fearful that it is a mistake?"

Jane had her eyes closed, and even though Maura wasn't beside her for sight to matter or lend visual ques she knew they were not talking about TJ and her father anymore. "You're my best friend, Maura." She felt her cheeks warm. "…I wanted to kiss you today."

"I know."

"You knew?"

"I don't want to push you in a direction, Jane." Maura pursed her lips in thought. "I can't help how I feel, I've tried."

"What does the science say?"

Maura chuckled quietly. "Very little."

"So we're both flying blind."

Maura exhaled. "It's terrifying… I feel so unorganized about you." She blushed then. "Which is ironic because you are my best friend and I've never had an affinity so… close." She touched her chest only to realize sleepily that Jane couldn't see her.

Jane nodded. "If we ignore it, make a decision to ignore it?"

"It would work."

Jane frowned at how certain she sounded and then the reality of it set in. "It would." Maura would marry, move, maybe start a different career. Jane would do the same. They couldn't hold the other so close for long without choosing a direction.

"I don't know which is best… I know it would devastate me to lose you in any regard. You know that."

"Me too, Maura."

"What do we do?" It was barely a whisper.

Jane wished she were with her suddenly. "It's okay." She whispered back. In the dark of her living room Jane felt herself shake as if hit with a cold breeze, her words caught in her throat as if they had come up and refused to go back down without sound. Maura's question made her sound so far away and she didn't like it. "Let's try…." She nodded. "Let's try, Maura."

"Shall we?"

Jane smiled a little. "Yeah."

There was a long pause on Maura's end.

"Should we… say anything to someone?"

"God no."

Maura silently chuckled. "Okay." She yawned.

"So next Friday? We can um, leave from work together…" Jane scratched the back of her head. "Get a bite to eat or— because really I need time to spill my savings, something tells me you're not a cheap date."

The pathologist smiled sleepily at her ceiling. "It's true."

"So Friday?"

"What should I wear?"

Jane shrugged. "Clothes, I don't know, we literally just decided on a day."

"What are your expectations though?"

"Expectations?" Jane made a face. "Maura."

"Should we write them down, hypothesis maybe?"

Jane paused. "You want me to get a pen?"

Maura looked about her in home Wensa and yawned. "I think I'm falling asleep, Jane."

Jane noted the relief in her voice. "Alright, Maur, sleep, we can hypothesis later."

Maura waited to respond to confirm that the drowsiness she felt was in fact somniferous. When it passed she sighed in frustration. "And paper?"

Jane sat herself up tiredly. "Yeah, hold on."


	7. Chapter 7

_**I say a little prayer for you**_

Maura pressed her finger to the sensitive screen with one hand and let it run its small length to get to what she was looking for. Once satisfied with the new location she brought her left hand up to wrap around the warm mug in her hands.

 _ **The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup**_

 _ **I say a little prayer for you**_

"Enchantment…" She began to read below her speaker system. "Noun."

 _ **And while I'm coming my hair now, and wondering what dress to wear now**_

"A feeling of great pleasure or delight…" She took a sip of her espresso.

 _ **I say a little prayer for you**_

"The state of being under a spell; magic…" Maura wrinkled her nose and tried the word again. "Magic."

 _ **Forever and ever, you'll stay in my heart**_

 _ **And I will love you**_

 _ **Forever and ever, we never will part**_

 _ **Oh, how I love you**_

 _ **Together, forever, that's how it must be**_

 _ **To live without you**_

Maura rested her mug down and used both hands to formulate a new search. "Magic." She picked up her mug again and glanced at the wall clock in her kitchen and then back to her tablet. "Noun…"

 _ **Would only mean heartbreak for me**_

##

Toothbrush in mid rotation Jane grabbed at the dark blue v neck she was wearing and pulled the fabric to her nose for inspection. The detective frowned and spit into the running water in her sink and rinsed her brush before putting it aside and yanking the shirt over her head. "I had to have done laundry this month…" She took in the sight of her bedroom for the first time in a few days and grimaced. "Shirt, shirt shirt…" She called as she lifted the fallen duvet at the foot of her bed and into nightstand drawers. Finally a crimson red v-neck passed the test in both odor and appearance. Jane slipped it over her head and then hesitated before pulling her hair back into a ponytail. She checked her watch again and made an effort to move a little faster to get herself ready to get out the door. She hadn't slept well last night, and her stomach kept on doing this thing that really was starting to annoy her. "It's just Maura." She reminded herself. "It's just another work day." She glanced at her watch again as she grabbed her keys. "And you're just about to be late for it Rizzoli, get it together."

Maura looked up from finishing her yogurt parfait when she heard the front door being keyed into. Jane slipped in clad in a black suit and crimson shirt. She grumbled something about traffic before tossing her car keys onto the end table near the door before stepping into the room fully. She looked to be about to greet the other woman when the parfait caught her attention. "You have more of those?" The last thing she had to eat yesterday was a bagel at work.

Maura tilted her head. "Why is it that you never eat breakfast at your apartment?"

The detective slipped to sit at a stool near the island. "Because I have no food there."

Maura turned to get a small mason jar from her cupboard. "Because is arguably the worst way to begin a sentence."

"And I know it."

Maura sent her a little smile. "You never go shopping."

"You always go shopping."

Maura shook her head as she opened her stocked refrigerator to grab the tub of Greek yogurt she had used. "Good Morning."

"Morning." Jane watched her begin to assemble a to-go version of her yogurt parfait taking care only Maura would to alternate the levels of blueberries and raspberries with granola. The doctor was wearing a grey pencil skirt and a ruffly black blouse that made Jane want to reach out and touch it but fearful because it may actually take flight if woken. Instead she crossed her arms and leaned forward to watch what she was doing before glancing up at the focused woman. There were a slight crease in her right dimple as she fought a stubborn piece of fruit; it made Jane smile a little. Maura looked up to ask something but fell quiet as she noticed Jane's gaze and returned one of her own.

Last night they had agreed to entertain this idea, this feeling.

"Your hair is out of your face, today." Maura noticed but then went back to her work when she realized it wasn't something one ought to say aloud, at least not when they were thinking the exact same thing and waiting for the other to address it.

Jane chuckled. "I was going for slutty-sporty but I think now I'm wishing I had went sporty-slutty." The ME laughed in response thus defusing the somewhat charged moment.

"Well I like it whichever look it is."

"You get any sleep?"

Maura finished the final layer of granola and began to search for a mason jar lid. "Some."

Jane got out of her seat and walked around to the mug cabinet. She noted the coffee light on Maura's fancy coffee pot had just turned off, meaning it had gone through a whole two hours of warming, meaning Maura had put it on early, meaning she was up early. "Hm." Jane responded as she reached to pour herself a quick cup. "Thank you." She picked up the sealed mason jar and turned it over to look at the surgically placed fruit and granola with her free hand.

"You'll have to have it when you get to work." The ME began to gather her bags. " I have an early meeting and then I have to head over to BCU for another guest lecture."

Jane nodded. "It's cool that they invited you back." She moved to take a sip from her mug but Maura rested a hand on her hand to stop her. Jane narrowed her eyes. "No Maura, I stayed up till three this morning scribbling big words on a napkin for you, I'm drinking this coffee."

Maura chuckled. "No one is retracting your caffeine; I'm simply asking that you take it to go."

Jane smiled then. "Wise woman." Maura shook her head in amusement as she began to gather her things. Jane watched her move about with a graceful haste. 'So that's why you look all dressed up today?"

The medical examiner was slipping something into her briefcase. "Pardon?"

Jane shrugged. "You look nice…" Maura smiled. "Very um, academic."

"A compliment?"

Jane brought her mug to her face to take a sip. "Only because you let me keep my coffee."

"Ah." She grabbed a blazer that was sitting on the back of the couch and looked to Jane expectantly. "Jane."

"Alright I'm coming, I'm coming."

##

Jane sat down across from Edgar Knowles and watched him closely. The paling man was about to break. They didn't need his confession, they had his partner's suicide note and the evidence at all locations, but Jane didn't want Knowles to know that. A crime this large had to have moving parts that predated the first attack. A crime this large had to have a series of buildup offenses and intricacies that and Jane was just not buying the psychotic break thing. She had sat in front of serial killers before, the more normal and sustained their life behaviors, the more sinister of offenders. Edgar Knowles had maintained a solitary life with just the right amount of witnesses but there had to be a hole and when she found it (because she would) Jane would expose him for the animal that he was.

"Mr. Knowles do you know who I am?"

He sighed. "Detective Rizzoli, I don't remember what you are keeping me here for but I do know that you're looking to confuse me further with asking me that every time you step in here."

"And where is here?"

His chains jingled with a shrug of muted frustrations. "Boston, Massachusetts."

"Hm." Jane responded simply. She leaned on her elbows of the interrogation table casually. "Sorry about that, I must have my disorders messed up." She stretched out a little entering his personal space without threat. "Like I have previously mentioned you are being detained for questioning for the twelve victims you had originally confessed to murdering." She leaned back in her chair and flipped open the manila folder in front of her.

"Murder? I haven't murdered anyone!"

"Yeah yeah calm down we did this yesterday, and the day before." She scratched her cheek.

"This is outrageous."

"What's outrageous is you running when my partner and I approached you on Wednesday evening, confessing to the murder of twelve people, refusing to tell us who or where they are and then waking up and claiming to not remember a damn thing." She watched him purse his lips. Good, he was angry. "This is just all for what? Shits and giggles? You think you can play the system?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Detective."

Jane huffed. "Alright well why don't you try and remember for me?"

"Am I being charged with anything?"

"Murder…" She shrugged. "Serial Homicide, if you want to get specific." She closed the folder in front of her after refreshing her memory on the quick blurb Maura had written for the Chief on the trace opioids that were found in all twelve victims' bodies. "How'd you do it?"

"I didn't murder those women."

Jane paused. "What women?"

Knowles shook his head. "The ones you said I murdered!"

"Eddie I didn't say they were women." She sat back in her seat and crossed her arms as she watched his face fall, recalculate, and then begin to twitch. He wanted to kill her. She could see him imagining how. She waited patiently as it all seeped in and his fantasies flashed over his heartless grey eyes and then he blinked and it flickered away. A corner of his mouth turned upward. It was an iota of a moment but Jane knew he was impressed with her. "Well I did confirm that they were women when you confessed to murdering them when you first came in here but I thought you couldn't remember that part?"

"I don't recall."

"You don't recall."

"Yes."

"That's interesting what you get to pick and choose what you remember and don't remember. Who you kill, who you don't kill. Tell me how did you decide on those women? DId they look like mommy? Or were they just in your way like women usually tend to be?"

Knowles stared at her. Jane narrowed her eyes and he lifted his chin in defiance before lowering it once. A nod. "Where is my lawyer?"

Jane actually chuckled as she stood. His games of superiority wouldn't work here. She had an idea. "You remember you have one? Good. I'll make sure he is on his way back." She stepped out of the room and straight to the viewing part of interrogation. Her brother stood watching Knowles carefully while Korsak turned to her.

"We got him."

Jane nodded. "How long do we have him technically?"

Frankie looked over at her. "A day before the DA wants the full report."

'I think he has something else to hide."

Korsak shook his head already knowing what she was suggesting. "No."

"We let him go and where is the first place he will go?" She motioned with her folder through the large one way mirror.

"To go find his dead golfing buddy." Frankie shook his head. "Janie we got the note, we have a morgue full of bodies downstairs that we can link him too—"

"Not directly Frankie and we have nothing on how he managed to continue to pull off these hides." She shook her head. "Think for a second alright, I wanna be as done with this as the both of you but just think about the man power it would take to hide twelve bodes in plain sight like this. It's not a two man job, it's just not." She shook her head. "Korsak would you hire someone who had been hopping from job to job like this? With no character references from past places of employement and noreal experience why hire a forty two year old man when you could get some kid to do it?"

Frankie shook his head. "What you think someone else knew? Someone was hooking him up? A relative?"

Jane had a point and Korsak knew it, he wasn't about to let a serial killer walk free just so they could tail him, there were too many variables. "He stays in the box, Jane."

"Vinc—"

"Find out who hired him. DA Groves is here tomorrow on Saturday because of the publicity this case has received. She wants to book him and book him fast."

"What time tomorrow?"

'Eleven thirty. You have till then, after that I want this dropped."

Jane nodded. "By tnight, got it."

Vince shook his head. "Jane I said by tomorrow—" Jane was already out the room and down the hall. Korsak looked to Frankie who shrugged and look back at Knowles through the mirror.

"I think she's right."

Korsak chuckled. "Think?"

##

Maura was running a hand through her hair and looking at papers alone in the large auditorium at BCU where she guest lectured frequently on the intricacies of pathology with Professor Erin Dooley. Today's class had been a great success and she was enjoying herself so much that she agreed to take a look at some of the reports the students were charged with while Professor Dooley tended to her office hour schedule in a nearby building on campus. Like with volunteering with MEND and occasional writing Maura found education to be one of life's continued surprises for her. She loved school growing up, even now, but she had no idea that teaching would fill her with the same excitement she felt as a child when preparing for a day of coursework. Erin warned her that this class in particular was special and the psychology 101s of the curriculum made you want to tie a cement block to your leg and go swimming but Maura was welcome to sub in on those as well.

If the class wee that bad physiologically speaking that wouldn't have been the fastest and most painless way to go anyway and why didn't her fellow pathologist know that?

A breathily laugh escaped the medical examiner.

It had been a joke.

Maura looked up from her musings suddenly when she heard the large double doors to her right near her lecturer podium open.

"Oh." A student with freckles splashed about his face and short blonde hair smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone would be in here."

Maua waved. "It's quite alright, what class were you looking for?"

"No class." He nodded. "Just some…relief. I'll try the study hall. Sorry to bother you Professor—"

Maura stood but watched as the young student took a step back into the hall as if not wanting to be seen fully. "Doctor Isles." She studied his features and attempted to ease whatever plagued his alternating facial expressions with a smile of her own. "I was guest lecturing on Pathology here, I work for the county… quietly." She joked. "You're more than welcome to sit in."

He hesitated but then shook his head. "I gotta go."

Maura nodded. "Okay." She watched him leave just as quietly as he came before turning back to her small desk just in time to see her cell phone begin to buzz. She reached for it and checked the caller before answering with a smile. "I murdered it, Jane."

Jane chuckled softly on the other line. "It's _I killed it_ , Maura."

The doctor shrugged as she got back into her seat facing the giant room. "It went well."

"Good, good, I know you were nervous."

"Opera singers report feeling an extreme rise in endorphins and dopamine after a particularly long act. The idea of filling an area as large as an auditorium with your own sound, its quiet miraculous."

"You yelled science at a bunch of kids?"

Maura chuckled. "I did not yell science, and they are hardly children."

Jane smiled. "Well you sound happy."

"Yes, I am just about done here. I should be back soon. Was there something you needed?"

Jane was sitting in a parking lot of one of the locations where Knowles worked watching the comings and goings. "Nah, not really." She checked her watch and used her free hand to scribble on her note pad another coming and going. This particular store housed the reginal manager's office upstairs and although her mark wasn't directly in charge of hiring he had to have interacted with Knowles on some level. "I am gonna be working late tonight."

"Has there been a development in the case?"

"I don't know yet. I just have a—"

"Feeling?" Maura finished for her.

Jane focused her attention back on the other woman's voice and smiled gently. "Yeah, I guess you already know how this whole thing goes."

"You called, that's an improvement."

Jane chuckled. "I always call." After jumping off the bridge it had been their silent compromise. Sometime she didn't have time to, the development of the cases would move too fast to know which way they would go or where they would be, but Jane tried her best to reach out to Maura because she knew that having the badge wasn't just her responsibility and she trusted her friend to relay the right information to her mother and hold back the rest.

"Sometimes."

"Sometimes." Jane agreed. She watched another man in a suit enter the store and jotted down the time and a short about his description. "Hey um, so what do you think about seafood?"

"Cooked for the right time and temperature it can be quiet enjoyable." Jane rolled her eyes. "What for? Sunday dinner?"

"Will you be back from your biker gang thing in time for that?"

"Yes, and it is for motorcycle enthusiasts, Jane." She paused. "Although members of organized crimes may be in attendance, it's not my motivation for going. Frankie will be there, you don't have to worry."

"Well no not for Sunday, but if there is anything that's not lasagna on the Sunday table it better at least taste like lasagna. I'm taking about um… our thing, the date." She bit her lip wondering for the first time if any of this was real.

"…Seafood sounds lovely."

The line was quiet.

"Cool."

Maura smiled. "Can I share something that may further your discomfort?"

Jane chuckled. "No."

"I'm glad you called."

The detective sat back in her seat a moment and smiled to herself. "Yeah, me too." This wasn't so different was it? "Will you let me know when you're back at HQ?"

"I will."

##

"Meditation teaches us a wide range of willpower skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control and self-awareness. It changes both the function and structure of the brain to support self-control but often times even with the most skilled of minds we lose sight of why we meditate in the first place." The soft padding of feet could be heard amongst the darkness in the room as their instructor circled his students that were lying on the ground with their eyes closed. "Now that we are in most vulnerable of states" He continued softly. "I want you all to join hands with the people beside you." There was some fumbling of movements. "Yes that's right, take the other persons hand."

On her right Jane could feel the slightly damp hand of the man who was sitting beside her. They were strong hands, working hands. For some reason it made her appreciate him even though she hadn't even known him for a full forty five minutes. On her left Maura's soft hand found hers shyly and they immediately laced fingers. Jane knew she wasn't supposed to but she poked her left eye open and noticed with a mixture of amusement and fondness that Maura's face was relaxed completely into a submissive trance. Jane admired how she truly looked at a place of peace and with a small nod internally she closed her eyes and tried to get a hold of what the instructor was saying.

This had been important to Maura, for them.

"Good." He continued to pad around the room. "Note the initial discomfort you felt and then lean into that discomfort fully allowing yourself to accept the other person as not a stranger, but a fellow human being. Lean all the way in…." Jane exhaled slowly and felt herself warm internally as if standing in the sun. "Meditation is not about being able to drown out the world and its discomfort; it is about finding the peace within to accept it, to live in harmony with it…To hold its hand." He continued to pad the room. "Lead with that thought and that thought only as we transition to sound guided meditations."

Twenty two minutes later the lights were turned on. Jane smiled at the man next to her who smiled back before letting go of her hand and wishing an enlightened day. She turned to look over at Maura who was beginning to stir. Jane looked down at her and then their joined hands.

"Not the worst way to spend a Saturday morning." She whispered as the room slowly came to life again around them.

Maua opened her eyes and smiled brightly. "How relaxing." She sat up to match Jane's potion and glanced at their hands as well. "How do you feel?"

Jane looked about and nodded before looking back at her. "Thought this guy would talk less."

The Chief Medical Examiner nodded. "He doesn't always but there were many new faces today. It's beneficial to have a guide while delving into the mind don't you think?"

"Hm."

Maura lifted their joint hands. "Thank you for holding my hand." They separated and Jane blushed which Maura seemed to enjoy seeing because on their way to Jane's parked car after changing she took the detective's hand again just briefly several times testing for an objection of sorts. All the mini experiment seemed to produce was a redder faced Jane Rizzoli and Maura realized then that she stumbled upon a new form of teasing her friend and she quite liked the upper hand it presented.

"Maura." Jane groaned as the shorter woman reached for her hand again.

The ME had a twinkle in her eye of mischief. "Are you embarrassed?"

"You're doing it on purpose." Jane stuffed her hands into her jean pockets and wriggled as a teenager might when being kissed by a caregiver in front of their friends as Maura playfully reached for her hands. "Hey!"

Maura let out a laugh at their struggle before sighing and wrapping her right arm around Jane's left as they walked. "I am."

 **AN: Song in the beginning is "I Say a Little Prayer" by the great Aretha Franklin. The idea of Maura singing "A Natural Woman" in the shower just really tickled me and added a layer to her character that I wanted to explore. Anyway review!**

 **KathleenDee**


	8. Chapter 8

Angela smiled at her daughter when she entered Maura's kitchen late Saturday afternoon. She had shot up in fifth grade, towering over all the boys and not stopping until she was in her first year of the Academy. Sometimes when Angela looked at her now she still saw that lanky kid, her limbs all stretching far beyond the trousers she had just bought her much to her father's delight and her own dismay. Angela Rizzoli had no idea where she had inherited her height, but like most everything about her daughter it remained an exceptional mystery of how it came to be but a staple of her very character.

"Hi, honey."

"Hey, Ma." Jane was sitting at the island crowded over a bowl of cereal as if it would be taken from her, judging by the free floating sugary marshmallows of different colors it very well might have. The idea made Angela chuckle and look about half expecting her daughter's best friend to appear and begin the thankless task of caring for Jane and her eating habits.

"Where's Maura? I thought you two were going to yoga?" She stepped fully into the kitchen and rested her bag down on the counter.

Jane plunked her spoon beneath the sea of off florescent colored milk and nodded as she chewed. "We went this morning, just got back from traffic, Maura's showering…" She fished out a clover and a rainbow and stared at them a moment before scooping some more pieces of cereal onto her spoon and eating it.

"Well that defeats the purpose of a relaxing morning, huh?" She teased with a soft smile as she shifted through a small stack of mail that was no longer left at her guest house door and had mingled with Maura's very official looking postage on the kitchen counter for quite some time now.

"Waking up at nine defeats the purpose of a relaxing morning." She watched her mother as she continued to eat now distracted by the usually loud woman's silence. "What's up?"

Angela looked up suddenly full of animation. Jane narrowed her eyes when she realized she caught the bait. "I wonder what Nina and Frankie are doing today."

Jane lowered her spoon into her bowl slowly. "I think their actually eloping—shoot I was supposed to witness. I better go."

"Jane."

Jane chuckled. "Why don't you call and ask them?"

"When was the last time we all had a meal together?" She looked at her watch as if it would tell her. "It's just about lunch time? Or an early dinner?"

"Tomorrow, because we eat every Sunday…"

"Well not last week."

"Because someone was too busy canoodling to make her children dinner." Jane reached for her spoon again and huffed. "I had to eat weird crackers, Ma."

"Why don't you kids invite me to dinner tonight or a movie?"

Jane pushed her bowl away and studied her mother's features wondering briefly for the third time that week if she would be so lucky to age so gracefully, Maura most certainly would. Hope could be her older sister. The detective wasn't sure where this earnest request for company was coming from but on occasion she indulged her mother, and for some reason today she was feeling lighter and left to examine all her human connections and what could be more human than a mother-daughter relationship? Jane nodded once.

"Alright, Ma. Let's go to a movie."

Angela briefed suspicion before smiling and going back to looking through her mail. "I'll call your brothers." She added as if no longer interested.

Jane looked back to her cereal. "Maura too?"

Upstairs in her personal bath Maura allowed several cool droplets of water to paint down her face and chest before brushing them away with a soft towel. She found herself blushing heavily and unable to focus on their paths. The doctor stared at her naked reflection carefully examining the emotion, turning it over and over again and again before leaning forward and staring it into a forced definition.

Buoyant

There was no other way to describe how she felt when Jane showed up at her doorstep this morning with little to say about the closed case and even less to say about their class, she had paid attention though, made only the expected wise cracks and only halfheartedly. There was a careful way about her Maura had only seen when she had to babysit Bass that one time or when interacting with small children.

She wanted to try because she cared and she wanted to do well because she too had feelings.

They had feelings for one another.

They had feelings for one another and they were in the mist of defining them.

As a buoy might she felt excited by the waves to a point of sea sickness, and as the waters calmed into a familiar ripple she moved still, anticipating the inevitable shift into activity again.

Maura finally decided on a pair of white capris and a free flowing tank of purple and green before she stepped barefoot downstairs to find Jane sitting on the couch watching baseball highlights. The raven haired detective glanced at her and sat up a little. "Hey."

Maura came over to the couch and sat beside her. "You won't change?" She motioned to Jane's jeans and sneakers.

"Ma wants to go to a movie later… Do you want to come?"

Maura smiled. "No." She answered simply before reaching for her book that had been forgotten on the coffee table and adjusting a leg under herself to get comfortable. She had had her mind set on an early night tonight and having had never encountered a feeling so indescribable made her warry to interact with the outside stimuli that came with the distraction of cinephotographic experiences. She wanted to allow her mind to digest the morning in slow and dedicated mouthfuls. Besides she and Tasha had scheduled a phone conversation later that day and she ought to call Constance and possibly Hope.

Jane stared at her a moment before chuckling to herself and looking back at the tv. Dr. Maura Isles never did something she didn't want to and hadn't apparently learned the obligation of social niceties. It made the idea of her whispering quietly at odd hours with the detective criminally obvious of her intentions and Jane couldn't help but flush a little. She spoke to fill the space. "Tommy and Frankie are coming…"

Maura nodded into her book.

"It'd probably an action movie anyway." Jane looked at her.

Maura looked up at her. "Oh I don't care much for those."

"So that's probably not something you would want to see then… Friday?" Maura shook her head no with a small smile. Their eyes danced over one another looking for hints of something more, signs of this change. The pathologist slowly closed her book. "What?" Jane grinned albeit nervously.

"Did I mention that I'm glad we went this morning?"

"Eighty times."

"Ah."

Jane couldn't refuse her eyes or shame them by looking away. She shrugged. "So yes to seafood and no to action movies?"

"Perhaps I should plan something."

Jane scoffed. "No I'm doing it."

Maura chuckled. "It's not because I don't believe you can plan a—proper experiment. It just seems to me that there needs to be a control."

"You?"

"An experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable. It will increase the reliability of the results."

Jane thought on it. "How about we wear the same thing, the same clothes?" Maura's brow wrinkled. "Not literally, don't pass out."

"Oh thank goodness."

"We should dress like we normally would when we um, y'know do things together."

"As to?"

"As to hence forth thus." Jane waved a hand and Maura smiled in that slightly displeased yet amused way of hers. Jane smiled back and then shied a little. "I'm gonna be nervous." She shrugged and massaged her hands together before looking over at Maura again. Trying to find something to wear that wasn't too dressed up seemed like a daunting task. Jane tried to think of the last time she was on a date and what she had worn. "Aren't you?"

"I am now."

"Now?" Maura nodded. "Why? We're just watching baseball, we do this every Saturday."

It was endearing that Jane believed they both watched baseball together every Saturday, sure they occupied the same space, often literally the same couch cushion, but Maura would do her nails, read, finish some paperwork, nap, she had no literal clue what Jane did beside her all she knew was that she was beside her, and that in and of itself made her more comfortable than being alone.

For the majority of her life solitude had been the only embrace she could depend on.

The detective waited patiently for Maura to reply but as the doctor opened her mouth to try and describe her new found buoyancy the back door opened and Angela appeared with her purse. "Janie! Before we pick up Tommy I need a loner."

Jane looked between her mother and Maura and then stood with a grand sigh. "Where to, Ma?"

"The bank."

Jane nodded to herself and then looked back down at Maura. "You need anything while I'm out?"

"No, nothing, thank you."

"Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"You're not coming?" Angela called from the kitchen.

Maura turned to look over the couch at her disappointment. "I—"

"Maura when are you going to realize that you're one of mine now? I wanted to sit with all of you, do something as a family. Tommy even got a sitter."

"She's just feeling guilty because she ditched us last Sunday." Jane shook her head. "You don't have to—"

"Don't tell her she doesn't have to."

"Angela really, it's okay, I'd rather—"

"Nonsense! I insist! Go change, Janie and I will be right back."

##

"Nah, I've seen that thing ten times with TJ!" Tommy protested into the microphone causing the ticket agent at the movie theatre to wince as the sound reverberated against the walls of the small stall.

"Oh Thomas stop, its family friendly." Angela pointed. "See it says it right there."

"Janie do you want nachos?" Frankie craned his neck passed the movie display and watched the concessions line carefully. If he separated from them now they wouldn't have to wait.

"How many times am I gonna have to watch a talking cat and squirrel become best friends!?"

Angela chuckled patted him on the back. "Okay okay. Not this one."

"Nachos Janie, c'mon we can get a large one and split it" Frankie rubbed his chin, "extra jalapenos."

Jane motioned to the electronic screen flickering movie titles and times like the stock exchange. "Yes to nachos, no to talking animals…unless they fight crime, do they fight crime?"

Tommy shrugged. "I don't want nachos."

"That's not what I asked you."

"Jane." Maura tugged gently on Jane's loose baseball sleeves as she motioned her cell phone toward the detective and began reading aloud. "Patricia Waird stars as a surgeon at one of New York's most experimental emergency wards. When a routine appendectomy leaves her on the verge of psychosis she finds herself investigating one of the most prestigious secret societies in the medical field." Jane furrowed her brows. "It's about cannibalism."

"Gross Maura."

Maura frowned. "Reviews have called it sincerely medically accurate."

"Sinerely?"

"Yes, free from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine fact."

"Or a hot dog…" Frankie shifted his weight. "I don't know!" He threw his hands up. "They give you too many choices."

"Well I sincerely do not want to see some lady eating people." Maura pouted. "C'mon Maur."

"Where's Nina? She scared of us yet?" Tommy joked as their mother began to lean against the ticket counter and ask the agent if there father went to so and so high school.

"Yeah where is she?" Jane asked trying her best to ignore Maura's pout.

"At the station, she got a call." Jane and Maura instinctively checked their phones. "I promised I'd bring her popcorn." For the first time since arriving he noted a movie and pointed at the title. "Hey what about Stuck In A Tree?"

Tommy looked at him fiercely. "You got knuckle brains or something, Francesco? I'm not watching that again. All TJ wants to do now is climb trees and I can't get him down half the time."

Frankie laughed and nudged Jane. "I hear they fight crime."

Jane turned to Maura excitedly. "I'm an animal that fights crime." She motioned to the movie poster of the cute animated cat and squirrel in a tree. "They're animals that fight crime."

Maura shook her head. "Don't you want to see something mentally stimulating?"

"No." Jane smiled. "I think I've had enough mental stimulation for one day." The medical examiner gave Jane a look. "I mean not that I didn't y'know…get a lot out of…. Maura." Maura turned toward the ticket booth and moved to stand with Angela. Jane sighed heavily and shook her head.

"Eh anyway." Frankie continued. "Nina really wanted to see that one; I don't feel right seeing it without her."

Tommy nodded. "Ma's too much of a baby to see Death Row II isn't she?"

Both Jane and Frankie nodded.

"You remember that one time we tried to get her to watch Scream?" Frankie chuckled.

Jane laughed loudly at the memory. "Tommy almost sent her to the hospital when he bought that mask."

Eventually they were all able to agree on an action adventure movie with a little something for everyone; science, crime fighting, romance.

The concessions stand was another half hour affair but that was okay because since they took so long to choose a movie (Mastering the Art of War) they had some time to kill before the next showing started. Jane was acutely aware that every attempt to interact with her best friend was brushed off gently by the other woman.

Maura's feelings though exceptionally resilient and most often the most accurate cue when interacting with the pathologist sometimes passed through a deep fog to the detective where Jane found her confidence in reading them escape her completely. In her line of work people often became predictable, their habits of speech and language of body, their routines. Boring almost.

The problem with these moments, these fogs, was that Maura wasn't like anyone else Jane had come across. There was no chapter on Mauras in the police academy's handbook on character behavior.

She never knew what Maura was about to say or do.

As she walked over to where Maura and Tommy were viewing a movie poster together in the bustling theater lobby she realized it was this unpredictability that got them into this thing in the first place.

Jane hugged her obnoxiously large tub of popcorn to her stomach as if its weight resembled that of a bowling ball or a pregnant belly.

"…Yeah I thought so too but y'know my insurance isn't the best and I don't wanna take him for them to tell me he's fine…." Tommy trailed off when he realized his sister wasn't going to jump in on her own thoughts on the color of TJ's boogers. "Uh…" Jane looked at him pointedly without Maura catching it. "So…" He struggled to read her expression.

Maura glanced to her right at Jane who falsely turned her head to admire the movie poster as she rocked the baby bowling ball in her hands.

Maura looked back to Tommy who was shaking his head. "Try a humidifier."

"Yeah I will, thanks, Maura." He left them.

Jane looked to her left quickly at Maura and then looked forward at the poster that really didn't have enough going on within it to have the two of them fixated as intensely as they were.

"I'll share my popcorn with you if you tell me what's on your mind." Jane offered reverting back to the basics of interrogation.

Maura nodded once still looking straight ahead. "You were going to share with me anyway."

Jane looked down at her on her left. "I've been found out."

They looked at each other and smiled. "I was thinking about your family."

"Not the crazy cannibal surgeon movie?" See? She had no clue with Maura sometimes.

"I still want to see that." Maura reached over and picked up exactly three buttery pieces of popped corn. Jane waited patiently for her to say something for the second time today, Maura wondered just then if that was how Jane expressed her more intimate feelings, through these small subtleties. Jane had always been an affectionate person, but there was something telling about her patience today. "I wanted to be alone to process everything about today, to stew in it almost." She chuckled when Jane's feature's softened. Maura popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "That's how I do things."

"Ma didn't want to leave you out; she's worried about you not sleeping well." The older woman had given Jane an earful about a number of her worries on their short car ride to the bank.

Maura smiled and glanced over her shoulder at Angela sweetly. "She's very kind."

"I wanted you to be here too." Maura looked at her then. "I know you like your space though, Maura, we Rizzoli can be a handful."

"On the contrary this was just the environment I needed. It seems to be this way more often, a pattern I only recognize in my solitude mind you. ." A very Maura way for saying she liked spending time with her family, and missed them when they were not about.

Ah. Jane nodded to herself, here was something she could read. "Then you thought about this changing too? All of us getting together…"

Maura nodded and reached for four more pieces. "I had never considered it until we were standing in line to get the tickets." She smiled. "I have to admit it surprised me. Thinking of them knowing…"

"About this thing."

"I was always okay with you knowing," She sent a teasing look. "But even that took time. It will take time, Jane."

Jane nodded fully understanding now. This wasn't just something that happened overnight and yet telling everyone else, technically would be. "You don't need to worry about them, let me worry about them." She heard herself say without proper cerebral consultation. It was one thing for herself to be overwhelmed by their newness, but Maura had always been so brave, Jane found she wanted to protect that, protect her. Maura smiled softly at her before looking back behind them to where Frankie was on the phone and Tommy and Angela were picking out a stuffed animal for TJ from an older arcade box.

"I don't think you know what you are saying." She looked back to Jane "but it's working. Thank you, I feel much better."

"They like you more than they like me anyway."

Maura chuckled. "I'm sure they like you very much while I'm away."

Jane laughed. "Damn." She swiftly moved the popcorn out of the medical examiner's reach. "When's your next trip anyway? New York right?" They began to walk back toward their group.

Maura nodded. "Yes, I have agreed to panel in a few months. It would be nice to see Tasha while she is there for that one semester at Cornell. " She paused before looking to Jane. "You should come with."

Jane nodded. Maura was really good at keeping in touch with the young girl they had been joint mentoring for a little while now, they had a kinship Jane never really understood but she did care greatly for the young woman and wondered how she was fairing. "I don't know Maura, time off—"

"Is something you never take." Jane sent her a knowing look and Maura smiled knowing that if she pushed hard enough she would have her. "We could take her out to a nice meal, I still have my connections with the restaurant scene there—"

"What kind of connections?"

"The connecting kind."

"Ahuh."

"When do they want you to start lecturing in Virgina?"

"Um… once all my HR stuff is complete."

Maura looked at her strangely. "Jane it's been two months."

"Not actually, and I had questions—look Ma won a stuffed animal."

"Jane."

Maura turned to face her and Jane sagged her shoulder irresponsibly. "Can we talk about this later?"

"Talk about what?" Angela asked as the two approached.

"Oh." Maura motioned to Jane. "We're going to talk about her depression later." Jane shot her a look.

Angela nodded slowly. "Well good, you need to talk to someone sweetie, you were never a depressed kid."

"Ma just because I wasn't a depressed kid doesn't mean—" She looked up dramatically for help. "Why am I even doing this?" She looked back to Maura who was grabbing a few more pieces of popcorn from her arms. "You just couldn't help yourself."

Maura nodded. "Sometimes you need to be pushed. I don't understand your hesitation with this."

"I'll push you." Jane attempted a threat but Maura's dimples made her grin before pouting. "I have to do a psych evaluation…"

"That's it?"

"No that's not it, but it's a part." Jane motioned for Frankie to end his call before looking over at her mother and youngest brother. "We should go get seats."

"Wait!" Angela got up and grabbed Maura's wrist. "Ladies room first."

Jane chuckled at the look Maura was giving here as she was being dragged along. Frankie ended his call. He pointed to the large tub of popcorn in Jane's arms. "I thought we were getting nachos."

"We are, this is Maura's."

##

Maura sighed contently as she ran a hand through her golden tassels and smiled as Angela moved to rest her purse down before tending to a pot of tea. "What a loud production." She reflected aloud, stepping into her quiet home after the movies was almost deafening compared to the many explosions and competing noises of the apparently all action version of The Art of War. "And very little science." She moved behind Angela to pour herself a glass of water.

Angela chuckled knowingly. "When they were young that's all they wanted to see. I started sending their father with them to the movies and when he was working I'd bring ear plugs."

Maura nodded as she drank. "That is a very good idea." She rubbed at her earlobe thoughtfully after resting her glass down. "Thank you for including me."

Angela shook her head at the thanks. "Oh nonsense." She wiped her hands dry on a kitchen towel. "You're a Rizzoli." She accented the Italian last name as any Italian mother would with pride for their own.

Maura smiled. She watched Angela reach for their tea cups as the kettle on the stove began to gurgle softly. "Well it's still so very new to me; I forget that I have them, all of them. Frankie and Tommy…"

Angela moaned with approval. "My boys love you, Maura." The opportunity to share with Angela that she had actually kissed all three of her children was not lost on the medical examiner. There would be a joke one day of it, she was sure, but right now Maura decided to keep it to herself. "Not as much as my Janie though." Angela paused a moment to decide on a tea in the dried tea cabinet. Maura sat at the stool at the island where Angela had placed an empty cup. "I'm so glad she's been able to find someone she can talk to. She's more like her father than she'd ever admit, stubborn like an ox that kid." She decided on a mint green blend and brought it down from the shelf as if removing an artifact from a museum.

Maura chuckled softly. "That is Jane."

"Have you ever seen someone as passionate though?" Angela turned. "Even as a kid…" She shook her head. "Just like Frank…sugar tonight?"

Maura shook her head. "No, thank you. Monosaccharides keep me alert."

Angela paused before nodding firmly and putting the sugar away. "You haven't been sleeping very well." She led as she caught the kettle just as it began to hiss.

Maura shook her head no. "Has Jane said anything more about his visit?"

"Maura do you think she would tell me before you?"

The ME shrugged. "I know it is upsetting to her…"

Angela moved to pour her some hot water. "I don't blame them; I would be upset as well…" She poured her own cup. "How long does depression last?" The mother of three asked innocently.

Maura cupped both hands around her hot mug. "I wouldn't be worried Angela."

"A mother never stops worrying."

"Well on some scale everyone goes through their own form of depression, Jane has the capabilities to cope…her current _funk_." She chanced a small sip of the tea. "This issue lies with long term or untreated cases of depression where the brain chemicals alter and production of happy neurotransmitters decrease. Loss of interest in things that normally make you happy, interest in morose topics like death, a feeling of numbness and excessive search for relief…" She paused. She had heard that before.

"Well if it's not depression then what is it?"

Maura blinked and nodded. "Jane?"

"I won't ask you to guess."

Maura smiled. "She's…in transition."

Angela looked at her plainly. "She hasn't been having intercourse has she?"

Maura colored. "I-I wouldn't know…"

"Well that might be it!" Angela laughed. "Whatever happened to that cute FBI recruiter?"

Maura's brain hopped from topic to topic. What had come of him? She wasn't sure exactly and Jane never really said. A fleet of anxiety whipped up in her that she calmed with a maternal patience.

Jane breathed heavily into the receiver an hour later. "Rizzoli." She mumbled.

"Your hesitation to complete your application for employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigations doesn't have anything to do with Agent Davies does it?"

Jane smiled into her pillow. "Who wants to know?"

"Maura Isles." Maura answered impatiently. The sleepy chuckle she got on the other end meant she had missed the joke or social reference completely.

Jane rolled over onto her back, a stomach full of movie theatre junk had made sleep a more pleasant bliss than wakefulness but she couldn't help but be amused. "No, he's not why."

"Well are you two still in communication?"

Jane stared at her ceiling fan, her smile never wavering. "He emailed me the other day about my application. Asking when I'd be in town next."

"Oh." She wasn't expecting all of that.

Some time passed without either saying anything.

"You in bed?"

"Yes."

"Why are you so curious about Davies all of a sudden?"

"It wasn't why I called initially."

A change of subject, Jane nodded to herself. "Why'd you call initially?"

"I was curious if you could help me find someone, a student." She bit her lip. "And…"

"And?"

"I wanted to say goodnight."

 **AN: You really don't know how much I love hearing from you all. Thank you for all those reviewers out there.**

 **KathleenDee**


	9. Chapter 9

Jane looked up from her desk and smiled. "Hey."

Maura had just strutted into the bullpen clad in a form fitting navy blue dress with a high neck line and her black Manolo Bahnik heels. Her beige handbag hung securely at the crooks of her elbow on her left arm. "Detectives." She smiled at Vince and Frankie before turning to Jane. "It's Wednesday."

Jane nodded slowly. "It is." Was there really no uniform policy for the Chief Medical Examiner's office? Not that she was complaining but Maura looked especially… Jane blinked when she realized she had spaced out and someone had been speaking to her. "Huh?"

Maura hated having to repeat herself. "You said we'd have lunch today and look into that thing at BCU with me."

Jane glanced at the time and looked over to Vince who nodded. "Uh, yeah. Okay." She stood and grabbed her blazer off the back of her chair. "You copying me?" She motioned to her navy blue v-neck she had worn today.

Maura shook her head. "This is hardly the same pallet." She waved to Frankie and Vince.

"It's blue." Jane shook her head. "Back in an hour, Korsak."

"This is more of a Presidential Blue while yours boarders Imperial, they're very different, Jane."

"Blue is blue, Maura."

"You're wrong."

They could be heard until the elevator doors right outside the bullpen were heard closing.

##

"Okay so you don't have a name." Jane reviewed as she pulled into faculty parking.

"No."

"You don't know what grade, major, or if he even goes to this school?" Maura gave her a look. "You asked for my help, Maura."

"I have a distinct feeling you're only doing this to humor me."

Jane found a parking spot and pulled in easily. "I am, but you said you had a bad feeling, I just have to look at this like a cop and not a…friend." She turned the car off. "Y'know technically I can't even be on these grounds unless it's an emergency. We have to check in with school safety usually."

"I know it sounds silly—"

"It doesn't." Jane nodded. "Following your gut y'know it's important to know how to do. Especially in situations like this."

Maura nodded. "Yes, but to assume an escalation to violence is quite extreme, I recognize that."

"I always said I wanted to sit in on one of your classes and throw spit balls."

Maura sent her an amused look as she unbuckled her seat belt. "I won't be lecturing today but I would like that someday."

Jane slipped on her aviators as she got out of the driver's seat. The day was cold but bright; the sun casted an almost violating ray of light onto everything on campus. Jane looked about before closing the car door. "You'll know him if you see him?"

"Yes." Maura walked around the car and touched Jane's arm to get her attention. "That's the Science and Medicine building there." She pointed. "Geometrically stunning don't you think?"

"Blackwell." Jane read the large silver letters at its front face.

"After Elizabeth Blackwell. The first woman to graduate from medial school in the United States. The interior is said to resemble the womb."

Jane nodded. "That's…nice?"

"The architectural work was done by Carlos Piani, an orphan. It's actually quite poetic."

"You know this just because?"

Maura shook her head. "Oh no, years ago NEMO partnered with PUKE and submitted a substantial donation. With the donation you got to submit an image of your medical team. I'll show you when we go into the lobby."

"That was an actual sentence that came out of your mouth? NEMO partnered with PUKE?"

Maura merely shook her head. "Professor Erin Dooley is my counterpart, after speaking with her yesterday she mentioned having a similar experience with someone who matched the same description."

Jane nodded and motioned for Maura to lead the way. "Suspicious you said?"

The two began their way up a gentle slope on a narrow path of bricked cement. They brushed elbows with students and faculty in the middle of switching classes or meeting up for lunch with friends. Jane watched their faces; young and determined and/or stressed, older and thoughtful and/or detached. It was after all Wednesday, not the beginning nor the end of the work week. "When's this class of hers?"

"Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays."

"You saw this kid on a Friday?"

"And Erin on a Monday."

"He's not in the class?"

"No, none of her classes though she had seen him before."

Jane nodded. "School Safety—"

"—Would have already brushed me off."

Jane nodded as they neared the building. "Tap my shoulder if you see him?" Jane held the door to the building open for Maura before stepping in after her.

"Alright."

The interior lobby of the Blackwell building smelt of rotting book, an oddly pleasant yet critical aroma. The floor was tiled until the set of elevators on their left which had an elaborate and colorful rug trimmed for cleanliness. All about them student's sat in booths and comfortable looking chairs (that accented the mother earth rug) while reading or chatting quietly with other students. Jane looked about the oval floored lobby and then glanced at Maura who remained watchful; when they met eyes Maura shook her head in the negative and then continued leading the way toward the elevators.

Jane stepped in and leaned against the railing as the doors closed.

"Thank you." Maura said looking over at her.

Jane shrugged her off. "I'm just doing my job ma'am." She mocked.

Maura smiled. "You and I both know this isn't ordinary."

"Just as long as you buy me lunch."

The ME nodded surely. "Whatever calorically dense excuse for nutrition you desire."

Jane grinned. "Corndogs."

Erin Dooley was a thin woman with attractive features stressed homely. Her chestnut hair greyed at her temples ever so slightly and whatever questions were left to chance were answered in her brilliant blue eyes. Her small corner office walls in the admin wing of the Blackwell building were covered with books of every shape and spine, and her desk was neatly chaotic. Behind her sat accolades and diplomas framed and a few pictures. Jane studied them closely as she and Maura exchanged pleasantries.

"Dr. Isles."

"Dr. Dooley."

Jane looked between them and chuckled to herself before sticking out her hand to shake the standing professor's. "Detective Rizzoli."

Erin smiled. "My." She outstretched her hand and shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you; Dr. Isles is very fond of the boys and girls in blue." She glanced at Maura knowingly. _"An integral part of pathology_ was it?"

Jane glanced at Maura who only smiled. "And you aren't?" She joked as she took a seat on the small loveseat facing Dooley's desk. Maura sat as well.

Erin nodded. "It depends on my mood I suppose." She smiled though to ensure Jane wouldn't take offense. "What can I help you with, Detective?" She sat back behind her desk and cleared the papers immediately in front of her so she could lean against her elbows.

"Mau—Dr. Isles mentioned having witnessed some suspicious activity here, I'm just looking into it."

Erin nodded. "I've already submitted a statement to campus security."

"When was that?"

"Earlier this month."

"Mind telling me what bothered you about the behavior?"

"Calculated observations."

"Calculated observations?"

"Yes."

"Mind expanding?"

"A fascination with the comings and goings of students and faculty alike."

"Just one student?"

"Yes."

"What about facilities?"

"Pardon?"

Jane looked about the room. "He ever try and lock doors? Watch for cameras?"

"I suppose so."

"You suppose so?"

"Yes."

"Do you house any valuable property here?"

"In my office?"

"In the building,"

"Many of the art work on the walls in the lobby are priceless." Erin reached for a thermos that sat on her desk. "All originals were commissioned for the building, queer artists." She uncapped her warm tea and took a sip. "Though detective I must say he didn't seem to care much for the paintings of vaginas."

"And you've never seen him before."

"No, and after fifteen years as an adjunct you begin to notice the new faces, even in seas of new faces."

Jane glanced at Maura before looking back to Erin. "Have you ever approached him?"

"Once."

"What happened?"

Erin put her thermos down and looked up to recall the experience. "It was early. I had a seven thirty class. He was the only student sitting in the lobby, I remember that being odd. I walked over and said good morning."

"And?"

"He said good morning back."

"That was it?"

She shrugged. "Well I figured anyone with malicious intent wouldn't have the decency to wish me good morning."

Jane nodded slowly. "When did you decide to contact security?"

"A week or so later, I was ending a class, and right toward the last ten minutes I needed to use the restroom. Youth isn't on my side anymore detective, so I prompted the students to work in groups on categorizing toxins by molecular occurrences in the blood, anyway I almost peed all over myself when I stepped into the hall because there he was about two inches away from the door peering into the lecture."

"Did he say anything then?"

"Excuse me."

Jane shook her head as she rode the elevator down with Maura a few minutes later. "I don't know Maura, it's weird for sure."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well this is out of my jurisdiction to take any direct action. I can follow up with campus security…You know you don't have to lecture here if you don't feel safe."

Maura shook her head firmly. "I'm not afraid, I'm concerned. Any number of reasons—" Just as the elevator bumped to the final floor and dinged to open a loud and all too familiar pop could be heard accompanied by screams.

Jane instinctively pushed Maura roughly to the corner of the lift and was already gripping her firearm steadily as the doors slid open to the lobby.

"-I knew it!"

"No! Please!"

Jane exhaled as her vulnerability in the elevator quickly became her strength. Standing there planted firmly in the center of the lobby with his back to Jane was a young man roughly five feet eight inches tall with combed blonde hair standing over a female and male student pointing a silver pistol at the girl on the ground. The male student lay clutching his leg, a pool of black crimson staining his leg and hand.

Jane looked to her right at Maura and without taking her gaze off the other woman's hazel eyes slapped the elevator to the highest floor and a few in between for good measure. Maura exhaled with concern but gave the slightest nod before Jane fixed her eyes forward and stepped out of the elevator gun raised.

"He's just my friend!"

"You love him!"

"Hey!" Jane called as she inched closer.

The shooter turned quickly and raised his gun.

"I don't want to shoot you." Jane raised an open palm with her free right hand before wrapping it back around her left. "Let's talk."

"Who are you!?"

Jane studied how red his face had become, the sweat down his nose, the way he gripped the pistol again and again. He was going to fire that weapon at least one more time today; the heat that radiated a recently discharged weapon to the inexperienced itched the conscious just so. It was only a matter of picking the target. She inched up more. "I'm Jane. What's your name?"

"Jane?" He shook his head and looked to her side where the brilliant gold of her badge reflected off of the sun trickling in through the main glass doors. "You're a cop."

"Detective."

"I'm—I'm…really mad." He sounded confused.

Jane nodded slowly. "Why? What's going on here?"

"—Stop coming closer!"

"Alright, alright." Jane stopped. "But you know I can't lower my weapon until you lower yours and I don't think you want to kill these two here." He swung the gun back around to face the girl whose weeping became shrill under the shooters supervision. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong."

"She left me—"

"She doesn't even know you!" The injured male student on the ground yelled.

"Shut up!" He shook his head a few times. "I know her, I know her. We're together."

Jane gripped her weapon carefully and weighed the options quickly. She looked down to the male student's leg and the amount of blood, an artery was knocked most likely and she was becoming increasingly sure that the student with the gun was suffering from some mental delusion. "Hey sweetie why don't you just tell him you're sorry huh?" Jane got the female student's attention. "Tell him you won't do it again and we can all go home right? You guys could maybe go somewhere private to talk about all this." The female student nodded quickly, a bit of her boyfriend's blood from his leg somehow had speckled her cheek.

"I-I I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She shivered.

"You are?"

She nodded quickly. "I, yes he's nothing…" She looked at her boyfriend longingly. "He's nothing."

The silver pistol hovered over them as Jane took it as her chance to move in a little closer. She was running out of time to defuse the situation.

"We'll get away from here soon." The blonde student nodded. "I forgive you, Florence."

Jane didn't take the chance to spear a second to think it through. She squeezed her glock twice. The first to the shooter's dominant leg to throw the blonde off balance and send the bullet meant for the boy on the ground sailing into the large glass clock diagonal them resulting in a loud snapping and crashing of glass, and the second to the pelvis to stop him from getting up and reaching for any hidden weapon he might have been carrying.

It happened in a matter of seconds.

As calm and as focused as ever on the outside Jane cleared the area before making her way over to the weapon on the ground. She picked up the pistol and with one hand positioned it in her holster as best as possible before approaching the three weapon still raised. The initially injured male student had passed out from pure shock of the whole thing and Florence was clutching him close to her chest and crying.

"It's okay, he's going to be okay." Jane repeated over and over as she examined the shooter and took his pulse. It was slowing and he wouldn't open his eyes. "Here, apply pressure here, Florence, sweetie listen to me. Don't move him… don't move him." Jane helped her apply the right amount of pressure to her boyfriend's leg before reaching for her phone; a warm and sticky substance she would later realize was blood stained the screen. "Dispatch this is Victor 825, I am on campus at BCU in need of immediate assistance, send a bus forthwith. Blackwell building on the east end. Two unidentified male in critical condition, active shooter sustained."

"My name's not Florence." The girl cried as she looked down into her boyfriend's face. "It's not Florence."

Jane looked around the lobby and nodded to herself before realizing something off. "What is it?"

"Katie."

Where was everybody?

##

"It's a good thing you went to lunch." Korsak shook his head. "IA is going to want to speak to you though as to why your lunch hour ended up in a shoot-out on a college campus."

Jane sighed tiredly. "This is the only place that's got a Bean burger in the whole area." She offered. She paused when she heard her name being called in the thick crowd of concerned population and media alike. The building had been completely taped off though and judging from the radio had just finished being evacuated.

"Jane!"

"Maura!" Jane waved as she neared the tape and lifted it when she sighted the familiar woman approaching with lines of worry all over her face. "I'm okay—"

"I heard three shots; two were from your gun—"

"How do you know what a glock G22 Gen4 sounds like?"

"Don't you?"

Jane nodded once. She supposed she did but she also carried it on her person a near 24/7. As odd as it felt to think Jane found it slightly endearing that Maura knew what her gun sounded like. "I'm okay." She repeated. The worry hadn't left the ME's face. "I'm okay."

"I thought you might have missed and—"

"I don't miss."

"That would be a statistical anomaly."

"Maura—"

"—I started coming back downstairs."

Jane's face grew stern. "Why? You could have gotten yourself hurt!"

"I wasn't about to let you—"

"I have a firearm, Maura and am not to mention a trained professional! You could have spooked him and—"

"Why don't we all focus on the fact that no one died today?" Korsak stepped in. "I sure am glad for that."

Jane exhaled heavily before shaking her head. "I'm sorry." She outstretched her arm and they embraced tightly. "I'm sorry." She mumbled into the shorter woman's hair. The smell of her perfume and the warmth of her heightened state eased Jane into a rational she could handle. If Maura had cowered into the corner she imagined she'd feel even more disappointed.

"Hell of a shot, Defective." A deep baritone greeted breaking up the embrace and reminding both women of their professional standing.

Jane nodded and outstretched her hand to the sky scrapper of a man clad in patrol blues with the BCU pin on his label. The BCU university division captain looked as if his muscles were about to burst out of his uniform and Jane was sure he had probably ordered the biggest size availed and though he towered over her there was something about his face that made him seem kinder than the average individual.

"Detective Jane Rizzoli, homicide."

"Captain Morro Clemmings. I need you to come with me, Detective."

"Sure." Jane looked to Maura who nodded at her silent question before touching Korsak's shoulder and following Morro out of the small triage zone.

##

"Oh!" Frankie sat up in his seat on the torn bar stool when he saw the familiar silhouette of his sister's hair as she stepped up to the entrance of the Dirty Robber. "Here she is."

Angela bit the inside of her lip worriedly when she saw her daughter's face as she tried to smile at her friends and family. She knew that look well. "Oh boy." She reached into the low boy beneath her were a number of bottled beers sat and opened one without looking as Jane approached the small group who was waiting on her to get there after her Internal Affairs questioning session.

Jane smiled tiredly at them and slipped into the open seat at the center of the bar that she supposed was left open for her. Nina, Korsak, Frankie, and Maura waited patiently for Jane to thank her mother before taking the beer bottle in her hands and peeling at the label some. "Suspended two days, no pay, on my jacket." She took a large sip.

"What!?"

"That's ridiculous."

"You gotta be kidding me, Janie."

"Who was your investigator?" Korsak's question was the only cry of outrage that she had heard behind her own swallowing and the melodically bar-ish piano turning out of the jukebox in the corner.

"Martinez and Haz."

"Rafael Martinez?" Maura put her glass of wine down. "He's moved to Internal Affairs?"

"I knew he smelt funny." Korsak shook his head.

"Like a rat." Angela nodded in disgust. " _Ratto_!" She threw her hands up and disappeared to make her daughter something to eat. She would deal with the feelings associated with having her daughter stand in the line of danger yet again after she made her a burger.

Maura pressed on. "Well that's unfair you two have—"

"Maura." Jane shook her head at the mixed crowd. She was the only one to know the true nature of their relationship.

The medical examiner picked up her Pinot Noir. "Well it's still unfair." She looked to Nina. "They were partners in Vice."

Vince nodded. "And Haz has had it out for me ever since I passed my Detective's exam before him back in—A long time ago."

"You gotta appeal it." Frankie nodded at Jane's left as he nudged her elbow. "They were obviously looking to make an example for both cases, no way this sticks. It was a solid discharge. Most uniforms would have blasted the poor kid's head away on account of a shaky gun."

Jane nodded. "I broke jurisdiction Frankie."

"You saved countless lives today, Jane." Maura cut in. "Including a very troubled young man."

"If you hadn't had that hunch Maura—"

"I did not hunch." She looked offended.

"I'm trying to pay you a compliment."

"Oh." She smiled tiredly. "Go on."

"I wouldn't have been there without you dragging me there. Could have ended real bad today. They know that." She took a sip of her drink. "You know something, for all that happened; Clemmings has a theory around why he was hanging around that building. We ran some footage back."

"What is it?" Nina asked.

She rested her beer bottle down on the bar. "He didn't want to hurt anyone." The group took a moment to let it all settle in. "Kid was losing his mind I'm so sure of it but… he didn't want to kill anyone. He chooses the most isolated part of the day in that building, right after lunch to confront them." She picked up her beer. "He's gotta get help, probably for a long time but… I can take two days for not taking a life." Maura reached over and capped a hand on her forearm. Jane smiled a little at her and nodded.

Korsak raised his beer to clink with Jane's. "I can drink to that."

"Heck of a day." Frankie agreed. "What do you think is going to happen to him, Maura?"

Maura looked away from Jane to Frankie. "I would be speculating on the specifics but certainly getting him back on a medication that doesn't have such adverse effects. Then psychiatric confinement. Intent to do harm whether it is to a single person or to many is still an offense."

Jane nodded as she reached out for a handful of nuts in a small communal bowl in front of them. "Wonder who Florence was or is.."

"Florence?"

"Miles Novak, the shooter called Kate Bluien Florence, he thought she was somebody else."

"It could be anyone, Jane. Research has usually pointed to a close relative, someone who has impacted them good or bad. We have no way of knowing. The case is going over to the campus security correct?"

"They took my statement and sent me packing." She nodded. She continued to peel at the bottle's wet label. "I guess they'll call."

Just then Angela burst back out from the kitchen with a juicy looking burger oozing out cheese and a red relish all over the plate and a basket of fries. "No more case talk Jane, eat."

Jane nodded. "You don't have to tell me twice, I missed lunch _and_ dinner."

"Internal Affairs didn't offer to get you something to eat?" Maura furrowed her brows and the bar of police offices chuckled. "Have a said something?"

"You never eat in front of IA," Nina leaned over to explain. "It makes you look guilty."

"So starving yourself is the answer." She frowned at the mess Jane was already making before giving her the small napkin her glass of wine had been sitting on. "Hanks ora." Was all she could make out from the fat cheeked version of Jane.

Frankie shrugged. "That's rule number one, Maura."

"Rule number two?" She asked the table amusedly. The team seemed all too happy to change the subject from the gravity of the day and its unknown repercussions. The reality was that as unfortunate and tragic of a situation this was, it could happen again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and every single time they would be the group that was called upon to produce answers.

Frankie nodded "That's easy, all traffic law, both federal and state do not apply on gnocchi night."

Jane nodded vigorously while both hands held the burger into place. "That should be rule number one." She frowned at a grilled tomato that had slipped between her grasp. Maura finally picked up the napkin she had offered the woman and moved toward her. "Ah! Maura!"

"Please Jane, it's killing me."

"If you napkin me you're walking home." Jane warned with a well-placed point to accompany the threat turned air swipe to block the assault.

"I'll drive you home, Maura." Korsak offered.

"Yeah, c'mon Janie, clean it up huh?" Frankie laughed

Jane ate her burger and her words as not an hour later she found herself pulling up to Maura's front door and shifting her unmarked car into neutral.

"—It doesn't seem to me they have much of an option." Maura finished quietly as the car stopped with a gentle shake.

Jane let her hands run down the sides of the steering wheel and onto her lap. "Yeah…" She agreed tiredly.

"You did well today." The doctor had wondered if the look Jane was wearing was because she didn't believe it.

Jane nodded. "I know." Her voice was small but appreciative. They sat there in silence a moment before Maura inhaled deeply and then exhaled. Jane raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"You did that breathing thing you do when you're about to give me bad news." Jane smiled softly.

Maura let herself be caught off guard by Jane's observation skills even now at this hour. "I was worried about you today."

Jane made a knowing noise that resembled a humming sound. "We've been through a lot, Maura."

"It doesn't make it easier." She straightened the material of her dress. "What are you going to do with two whole days off?" She wanted to change the subject. This was what Jane loved to do, couldn't live without doing, Maura knew it as she knew her own name, but one day the ME knew the detective would have to make a decision that could cost her way more than she realized. It wasn't her place to remind her though, she could only be there. Maura wanted to be there.

Jane shrugged. "I don't know." She mused privately before shrugging. "I do have a lot of paper work…"

"Or perhaps you could babysit George Herman?" She gathered her things and reached for the door. "Read some Shakespeare?"

"Watch baseball."

"Or finish your Human Resources application."

"Or watch baseball." Maura shook her head at her. "I'll find something to do…" Jane thought of Friday's experiment suddenly as Maura opened the car door and let the cold breezy Boston air sweep in.

"I'm sure you will." She was just about out of the car.

"Maura?"

The ME shifted to look behind her. "Yes?"

"I…" They stared at each other. "Ma I can handle worrying about me…"

"You have a very difficult job."

"Demanding."

"Yes."

She rested her left arm on the steering wheel for balance. "Things usually… don't really work out because of it."

Maura tilted her head and examined the statement visually and then again for what was not said but was so methodically written between. "An opportunity for escape." She devised.

Jane breathed deeply but nodded. Maura was too important to her to not give her the choice, then again Jane had no idea she was even proposing such a thing until the ME put it into words. "If you want it." A moment passed, as brief and as forgetful as any other, Maura moved to ensure her purse was in her lap to protect it from falling. Then with a tenderness only knowing someone through great tragedy and great triumph could conjure she reached her right hand to cup Jane's jaw, held it, and then leaned forward over the center console to press a warm kiss onto her cheek.

"Goodnight Jane."

Before she could move away Jane caught and covered Maura's hand with her own and trailed it to her lips to press a small kiss onto her soft knuckle. "Night."


	10. Chapter 10

This had to be quite possibly the best sandwich being prepared right now on the face of planet Earth. Seriously, right now, no other sandwiches could compare, they couldn't even come close.

What could further elevate such a masterpiece? Jane Rizzoli wondered as she stood over her kitchen counter regarding the open sandwich on her cutting board piled high with thinly sliced olives, prosciutto, mortadella, genoa salami, tomato, lettuce, spicy mayonnaise, provolone cheese, marinated red pepper, freshly cracked black pepper all on thick whole wheat bread crumbling with sunflower seeds.

"What do you think, Babe?" Jane asked the tank sitting at the end of the counter where a now slightly bigger, but still incredibly tiny tortoise chewed slowly on some spinach Maura had put in there for the car ride over to Jane's place that morning before heading in to work. "You think we need some mustard?" George continued to chew slowly and watching the large but familiar human fret over something he just couldn't understand. He was in no danger though, and he had plenty of spinach to occupy him until the other human with the soft voice returned. He watched on curiously. "I think we need some mustard." Jane nodded.

It was around eleven now, and after sleeping a dreamless sleep Jane woke and shuffled her way into her kitchen around nine where she found George Herman perched on the counter in his tank and a small note from Maura giving Jane instructions for the little animal with prescription like specificity. Apparently he had had nightmares the night before and was reluctant to leave his shell this morning. Jane hadn't noticed any odd behaviors but she made a mental note to call Maura around one when she knew the medical examiner would be taking her lunch hour to fill the doctor in on his behavior. She'd appreciate the call and Jane wouldn't be lying with wanting to hear what Maura was up to.

After splashing some water on her face she made coffee and watched the sports channel and then the news which was playing quietly in the background now as she made her lunch. After coffee Jane started a load of laundry and picked up a few things before deciding that what she should be doing was focusing her energy on making one of the best sandwiches this side of the eastern hemisphere.

Realized fantasizes of culinary stardom were cut dry when her cell phone began to ring on the counter and the detective leapt for it as if it would explode if the call rang out twice. "Rizzoli." She frowned when her mother's voice came over the phone and not Kennedy's her usual dispatch monitor. "Hey Ma." Jane stuck the phone between her ear and shoulder and opened a crusted jar of mustard before looking for a butter knife. "No I'm at home…Making something to eat…" She smiled softly at the not so veiled attempt to check up on her. "I'm okay, really…Oh yeah?" She licked her thumb free of mustard before raising the volume on the television a few feet away. "Yeah that looks like a bad pile up…" She wondered if Maura would receive the victims of the other medical examiner's office. "Well its high profile enough they will probably send it Maura's way." She agreed before sighing. "She doesn't mind…" She wondered if accidents like this bothered Maura. At least in homicide there was a villain, here there was no such thing, just a faceless truth of life's uncertainty. "Yeah… just last week there was an accident like this off Broadway…. Yeah…" Jane glanced at Gorge Herman who was still watching her and chewing the same piece of spinach slowly. "Go shopping with you?…..um, Maura's got me babysitting so, maybe some other time, Ma." Jane chuckled. "Yeah, that would be okay." She was still going to bring by some lasagna to cheer her up. "It would have to be today though, Ma." She shied some. "I got this thing tomorrow…um, dinner thing. No not a date for the love of— yes, yeah okay—Goodbye mother." Jane hung up and sighed. The mustard being spread just evenly so now seemed as important as corded telephones. Jane slipped the knife into the sink and stared at the open faced sandwich and then George Herman. "I don't know how to do this, Babe." She could acknowledge the fact that her feelings were there, she couldn't go a whole half hour without thinking about the shorter doctor, and seeing her yesterday; hearing that gunshot and willing to literally use herself as a human shield without a seconds thought was automatic, but leaving her in the elevator, not knowing the exact situation, if she were safe there, if she would see Maura again, it woke an urgency in her she couldn't place. All she knew was that it was about her feelings for her best friend.

Jane Rizzoli hated running, but after cleaning and laundry, and pacing it seemed like the only thing really that would help clear her thoughts. She had forgotten her sandwich out and went over to pick up the plate with it on it and distractedly put it into the refrigerator as is then went to change into something she could move in but was still warm and after giving George Herman some gentle reassurance about her return she was out the front door and down a familiar route toward the docks. The tickle of salted sea air invigorated Jane as she pumped her arms into gravity and propelled off the brick pathway leading to wooden planks. The midday sun cast a warm sensation against her back as she ran away from it into the brisk nor'easter like air.

In the distance she noted her father's hotel, brown and crumbling against the brilliant and more affluent Boston horizon. The hotel looked almost fake against it. She wondered if he were there, if he cried for the choices he had made, where it had put him in a city full of unavailable family subjected to horrible take-out and peeling paint. She hadn't once considered her actions wrong until now. Was it possible to truly be sincere? She couldn't trust it. Maura had been right to say that she didn't want to be disappointed, but she didn't want to miss him either. How could Maura protect someone who lied about her, put her out to be the enemy though? She didn't know what she would do if he had said all of that in front of Maura,.. Maybe Maura wasn't protecting him at all, maybe she was protecting Jane from him, or at least the memory she had of him.

Focusing her attention forward Jane let mind run with her at a pace she preferred to manage. She thought of yesterday and the pain everyone seemed to be in some way or another, she thought of Dr. Dooley and her greying temples, TJ and then naturally Tommy, Frankie and Nina, their mother and her strength, Tasha and how scared she herself had been, how certain she was she couldn't see a way out. The miscarriage… Casey, Frost…Frost. Jane let herself exhale heavily and hold the lack of oxygen in a deafening and near intolerable protest to not sulk because Barry would only laugh at her for it.

Toward the end of her run, and as the sweat on her back clung desperately at the cotton of her grey BPD shirt, and after all her other thoughts became resolute in nature, Jane thought of her best friend, and how warm and soft her lips had been on her cheek, and how ever since their class on Saturday she found herself randomly thinking of excuses to hold her hand again.

Could they really go back if after tomorrow things didn't quite fit? Jane doubted it, the risk had already taken itself and cashed itself in without either of their permission. Maura had kissed her, and Jane wanted her to want to do it again, she wanted to be the person Maura wanted to kiss again, and she knew that that meant a number of things, the entirety of the list hadn't made itself clear yet but there was for certain something she knew she could no longer ignore.

After a quick shower Jane changed into baggy sweat pants and a random shirt she got a few years back for waking up at the ass crack of dawn and volunteering at the zoo with Maura and her geek squad.

"How's that spinach treating you, Babe?" Jane asked with a chuckle at George who had seemingly moved an inch from the spot that he was in, the generous dark leafy greens had been diminished two a small dried pile but George seemed all too happy to continue to eat the crackling leafs. She made herself another cup of coffee and sat at her sofa to pull her lap top from under it with a sigh.

Half an hour later while elbow deep in a large bowel Kent came over with Maura's cell phone. "Dr. Isles—"

"Kent, at this current moment I am a little preoccupied." Postmortem hemorrhaging was messy, and required all of her immediate attention. Maura hadn't had much of a breakfast this morning trying to get the tortoise ready and out the door and her relatively light work day was thrown for a loop when the neighboring county's medical examiner's office was reportedly at capacity, which having helped built the facility herself she knew was a false truth, which meant after two more autopsies she would need to sit down and draft a disciplinary letter. That and Internal Affairs was circling the parking loop waiting to ask "a few more routine questions" about yesterday.

The absolute last thing The Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wanted right now was an automated phone call notification from Amazon stating that their delivery attempt failed and they would try again on the next business day.

Nodding knowing this to be true Kent let himself wrinkle a smile. "It's Detective Rizzoli."

Maura frowned into the gaping cavity of Lamar King, a victim in the recent collisions. "I will have to return her call." She nodded to herself and then nodded to Kent who was holding her phone.

Kent hesitated before bringing Maura's cell phone to his ear. "Dr. Maura Isles phone. This is the incredibly handsome and intelligent Kent Drake speaking."

Jane snorted. "Where's Maura?"

Kent nodded at the fast and efficient work Maura was doing to stitch up the medical oddity. "She's indisposed at the moment, can I take a message?"

Before Jane could think to say anything she could hear Maura in the background requesting that she be put on speaker.

"Jane." Maura spoke albeit a little far away. "Is it George?" Her strain and parental concern was audible.

Jane glanced to make sure at that very moment that George Herman hadn't decided to grow thumbs and wings and any other appendage necessary for escape. "No, Maur, he's here, he's okay." She paused. "I um, was calling…to let you know that."

"No news is good news." Kent nodded. Maura looked at him. "What?"

"I'll have to call you back, Jane."

The remainder of the day ran away from Maura. She hadn't had the chance to call her friend to check in like she had planned before lunch and even after the PM techs arrived she knew she would only speak to Jane when she saw her next, which would be when she came by to pick up George Herman. She had a right mind to leave the little thing there but thought better of it when she remembered Jane was hardly home as is, no her home was better, and she would admit only to her own subconscious that she missed having Bass to care for.

The pathologist worked efficiently while taking care to ensure she watched the clock. It wasn't until 8:30 that night when she sat in her car that she was able to take a breath and realize her person. She was no longer Dr. Maura Isles, Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she was just a woman going to pick up her tortoise from her best friend's house whom she happened to be eagerly nourishing feelings for.

Last night after getting safely into her own home and noting her solitude she couldn't help her thoughtful smile. Jane, ever the cautious sibling, the protective friend, the righter of wrongs and keeper of justice had asked her to weigh her options, be reasonable, she had given Maura an out, a way out of the tornado she believed her life to be. Maura had longed to kiss her lips then, as if unable to communicate just how she felt in any other fashion, she could see though that Jane may not have taken it as intended and instead put all her effort into expressing an inexpressible unconditional positive regard onto a single patch of Jane's soft cheek.

The drive to Jane's took 30 minutes.

Angela opened the door and smiled, she had missed Maura's surprise. "Reinforcements."

Behind the sturdy woman Jane stood stubborn. "Good, you're here, now you can explain to me what in God's name this is!" She was put completely off, but not engaged. Maura stepped into the noticeably cleaner living room and smiled at her friend who was pointing aggressively at the counter where a used fork sat beside a baking dish with aluminum foil curled upward revealing a cheesy layer disturbed.

Maura looked at the lasagna, and then George Herman who was in his shell.

Smart

She smiled suddenly finding a humor (and comfort) in the whole thing much to Jane's handsomely vexed features.

"I knew it!" The detective crossed her arms. " _You_ did this."

"Oh leave her alone!" Angela came over and tugged gently at Maura's heavy coat and folded it over her arm. "She's just concerned, and quite frankly so am I."

"Ma the fact that you even went along with this is not only troubling, it's disrespectful."

"Disrespectful?"

"Yes!"

Maura was bent over examining the perfectly fine looking lasagna with crime scene focus as Jane and her mother went back and forth in the background. She turned to Angela upright and pointed to it after a final sniff gave away the last clue. . "Is this with Zucchini?" Angela nodded. "How yummy, I'm actually quite famished" Jane shot her a look "What? Your mother has been working hard to perfect this recipe."

Jane shook her head. "It's not a recipe Maura, its salad and cheese warmed up in the oven."

Angela crossed her arms. "You're going to eat it because you have nothing in your refrigerator and you're going to be grateful because I made it and I'm your mother." Jane pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at the shorter woman she had come from. Angela matched the face and from an onlookers point may have even invented with the ease she positioned in and out of it to smile at Maura. "Help yourself, honey."

"Thank you, Angela."

"I'm going to be late for my dinner date." She rested Maura's coat against the back of Jane's sofa and readied her gloves which had also been in her hands "You'll call me to thank me tomorrow before I go into work and send Maura home with the dish once it's cleaned." She paused. "Actually cleaned, Jane."

Having had enough mothering for one evening Jane began to rush her out of the door. "Yeah, okay, okay." The two women seemed to move in a comical dance fight shuffle to the door until they finally reached it and Jane leaned to kiss her on the cheek obediently. Maura watched as Jane rolled her shoulders and turned back to face her.

"Meatless lasgna, Maura?" She asked in disbelief.

"There are so many reasons why a plant based diet can help chronic hormonal irritability."

"You're so full of it."

"It smells lovely."

Jane let herself curl a corner of her mouth upward in a smile that made Maura smile back fully now. She padded towards her. "You're going to get her flogged at the next Sunday dinner if she pulls this." Jane stopped at the back of her couch and picked up Maura's coat to hang it on a hook near the door.

"It was her idea to switch it."

"Are you really hungry?"

Maura looked over to the lasagna. It must have just come out of the oven with the way its aroma took over every scent. "Yes, however I—"

Jane was by her side now moving the dish. "Take your shoes off; my feet hurt looking at you in them." She moved easily to the other side of the island to grab something a little more suitable to serve it up in. "Stay and eat or take it with you." She joked hoping it didn't seem like she really wanted Maura to stay, which she absolutely did.

Maura didn't protest. She slipped out of her heels and groaned softly before moving to put them by the door under her coat. "You cleaned?" The thin layer of dust that sat behind the display case of baseball memorabilia was gone, and Jane's entryway closet door actually could close.

Jane shrugged as she pulled down two plates. "Some." The detective stole a few glances at the ME as she walked the living room area curiously barefoot and impressed. She was wearing a black skirt today and bright yellow blouse that wrapped itself around her frame in an envious way. Her posture relaxed some from when she first arrived and the absent hand to the back of her hair ruffling it every now and then meant she was in fact comfortable here.

Jane was glad she cleaned.

"Ready for something else?" Jane took her time looking back to her divisions of cheesy white sauce and greens and Maura took her time making it back to the island.

"Yes."

"I completed my FBI portal information." Maura began to smile. "AND—"

"There's more?"

"AND I went for a run."

Maura chuckled. She saddled up onto the bar stool nearest her. "I'm very proud of you, Jane."

The detective shrugged again as she continued to cut pieces for them both, Maura's obviously a bit larger. "Yeah it was time to do it."

"I agree. How do you feel? Accomplished?"

"Sitting on my hands all day? No." She opened a drawer to retrieve two forks. "I rather be out there actually doing something."

"Self-care is important too—Oh Jane I couldn't possibly eat all of this."

She moved to grab some water glasses. "You look tired, you should eat something."

"Angela logic."

Jane caught herself and laughed as she filled the glasses. "Oh no."

"Well I am glad you had such a productive day regardless of where you were." She watched Jane come around from the island and pull up a stool beside her with their forks. They hadn't been this close since last night. "Internal Affairs had some more questions for me." She forked a reasonable bite from the still steaming vegetable lasagna.

"Oh yeah?" Jane paused after elbowing Maura. "Sorry." She was left handed and Maura right, sitting like this reminded Jane of all their differences beginning with those awkward fumbles to plan and place elbows.

Maura smiled gently and gave Jane room to adjust. "I don't mind." She picked up her fork.

Jane nodded. "We'll have to make sure we sit the other way tomorrow." T intended to come out as a joke, one they had told one another before when encountering the issue, but it came out timid.

Maura felt herself flush. "Yes, perhaps reservations—"

"I've already made them so... I can call tomorrow."

"Was that done today too?"

"No."

Maura looked back to her plate. "Where will we go?" She busied herself with chewing.

"It's kinda…" Jane shrugged. "Cliché, kinda romantic."

"Cliché and romantic?." She asked a tickle of teasing in her voice but she dare not look at her. "My."

"Seafood, then to that cannibal movie… I didn't' think going to that first would work out too well."

"And our control?"

Jane busied herself with eating now too. "Well we won't dress up, right? That would keep things as normal as possible and this seafood place isn't ritzy.." She paused. "I can pick you up from your place instead of the precinct since I can't be there."

Maura nodded signaling it was a good plan. She'd have to find out if she had anything that wasn't dressy but that she could do privately. "You won't ask me again what you asked me last night will you?" She found she needed to know.

Jane looked at her, Maura didn't. "No..."

It was an earnest answer that for some reason allowed the ME to relax more, Jane noticed and finally understood somewhat what it must have been like for Maura navigating all of this on her own. It had to be just as hard right? She turned back to her meal. They were going to figure it out together, whatever that meant. "How do we read the results?"

"Of the experiment?" Jane nodded. "Oh, I've prepared a questionnaire."

Jane shook her head and stabbed a piece of zucchini. "I know you're not kidding, but I still have to ask."

Maura shook her head seriously. "It's the standard means with experiments suited for qualitative findings. You can't simply quantify how you feel, don't you agree?" Jane just looked at her with that same half smile as before. "After some dedicated time alone, my anticipated time would be around forty eight hours—"

"Forty eight hours?"

"Yes, away from one another."

"What about work?"

"Personally I mean. It will give us time to reflect on our feelings."

"Wasn't that what meditation was for? All that hand holding?" Jane swore she just made this stuff up because no one cared to check, she was the fool to keep going along with it while still holding her suspicions.

"That exercise was about connecting on a human level, leaning into the discomfort of the unknown."

"Maura."

"Forty eight hours has been proven as the shortest time span in which decisions can be made once presented with all the evidence."

"Where are you getting this?"

Maura smiled. "Geraldine Hoy and Mark Bowin's 2014 study on Regret."

"Just the one?"

"in 2014."

Jane gave up. "Alright, seems like everything is on a two day limit."

Maura went back to her meal. "Reflection time."

Jane did as well. "Yeah, r _eflection_ time."

They ate speaking idly after that. Jane asked about Maura's day taking special interest in the police work behind it all and her IA questioning. She asked questions she knew Korask would never answer upon her return. She asked about the pile up and then when it was time to speak and not listen she reassured Maura that she was a great doctor and though someone else had been slacking a county over the families of those lost were better off speaking with her anyway. Maura was gracious enough but certainly seemed as if she was ready to move passed it. She in turn asked about George Herman, and then Jane's run. Jane made a sweat lodge joke before taking about remembering Frost. Maura asked what she had felt then and in a polite closing off Jane admitted to feeling sad but knowing he wouldn't want her to be. It came to a point in the evening where Maura envied Jane's comfortable clothing, and Jane simply grew tired. Jane cleaned up the dishes and paused.

"Anything about Miles Novak?" She asked a she rinsed off the plate after noting with a bit of pride that Maura had cleaned hers.

"He is still in psychiatric care."

Jane nodded. "Probably for the best, whoever interviews him is probably chomping at the bits, and with me out—"

"Unjustly so."

"—The only thing they have to go on is my statement and the video footage."

"Dr. Dooley wanted me to give you her thanks on behalf of Blackwell admin. If you weren't there Jane…." She watched Jane come around the island and slide her stately frame onto the stool beside her again. "I won't say the H word."

"Accountants are heroes too." Jane nodded.

"You put yourself in front of a mentally unstable student with a gun."

"Maura." She whined causing the ME to laugh.

"Which is it?" She turned her stool to face Jane, their knees brushing against the other's instead of their elbows. Bellies full now, and with their undeniable ease returning completely half way through dinner made the motion fluid and natural. They could reach out, see, feel, bend, to the other which was preferred.

"Which is what?"

"Is it that you actually do not prefer the limelight, or that you really believe what you do doesn't impact people?" It wasn't a new question, Jane just never gave her a straight off answer.

Jane thought. "There are a lot of people like me out there."

"I don't think so."

"What about, saying it's a cop thing?"

"No. Try again."

"Has anyone ever told you that sometimes you can fixate on things?"

They wore sure but small smiles, flirtatious may have been what they were called but the two had no comparison to recognize it, and George Herman fortunately or unfortunately could not speak English.

Maura reached for her glass of water. "I've always been naturally very curious."

"Too curious."

"Do you suppose, Jane?"

Jane's smirk fell in place of an honest smile. "Nah, are you kidding? There is no way my case record would look as good without you and that big brain."

"The average human brain weighs 2.7 pounds, you'd do much better with a Sperm Whale, their brains are 17 pounds."

Jane chuckled. "I don't think a sperm whale would fit in my car, or that skirt, and I thought all that size talk doesn't matter."

"Well actually it is the matter that matters." She laughed at her own joke which made Jane laugh too.

"Have you had your brain weighed to know?" She asked goofily.

"It's quite easy to do the math—"

Jane put her hand up. "I'm gonna stop you right there, in this house?" She motioned to their surroundings. "No math past five."

"In the evening?"

"In the morning."

Maura shook her head. "I had a dream about Bass, and Jo Friday."

"You actually slept?"

"It was a very stimulating day."

Jane nodded. "I didn't dream at all, just darkness y'know. Then I woke up and came out here and found Babe."

"I was going to wake you but thought better of it."

"You should have." She said it before she could analyze what it meant, when she had time to later in bed she knew she meant it.

Maura shook her hand as if still unsure. Jane could see she was tired. It was the prim and proper boarding school girl turned woman in Maura who hated to seem it though. Instead of ignoring it Jane quickly calculated what little resources she had on hand to help.

"You want some tea?"

"Tea?" Jane nodded sweetly which only made Maura smile in a way that didn't reach her mouth. "Please?"

Jane hopped off of her stool glad to have something to do that would make Maura more comfortable. She had realized a half hour ago that she didn't really want her to leave. There was so much to catch up on just after one day of being out of work (and away from each other) and her sweat lodge run had made her realize that she was so cranky when Maura was gone because there were no moments like this; no quiet talks or reflections, no one really demanded her comfort, her review of the day, her thoughts the way Maura did.

It was nice.

So she made herbal tea, a dried kind Maura's nose wrinkled at but said nothing but a genuine thank you to. Jane asked how she had slept and Maura recalled what bit of the funny dream she could remember and then gave her a random fact about action potentials and the brains ability to cope.

"I should go." Maura finally said. They could not draw it out any longer.

Jane nodded as if she agreed. "You can always stay in the guest room." She tossed a thumb over her shoulder to the small hall where she knew three stacks of her unpacked apartment sat pushed in a corner. The bed was her old one, hardly suitable for any kind of real rest, and since Maura had already outright demanded she buy a new couch Jane began to figure maybe it would be best she took the guest room instead.

Maura seemed surprised but only for a moment. "I haven't anything to change into and my nightly routine…" She looked over at George Herman who had long since fallen asleep. "I doubt you have anything green for breakfast either."

Jane nodded, she didn't it was true. "We could always give him some lasagna." They both stood.

"If I don't bring that dish back—"

"Um hello, I know you guys are besties now but she's still my mother, trust me I know how she can get about tupperware." She watched as Maura began to gather her things around her. "One time she made me walk all the way back to school in muddy overalls to get a dish from a bake sale."

"Of course your overalls were muddy."

"I'll bring it tomorrow." Jane helped her with getting George situated before walking with his tank to the door while Maura slipped into her heels and her coat. When she moved to walk past her to grab the door Maura stopped her.

"You'll freeze."

Jane frowned and looked down to her socked feet and baggy sweats. "Maura."

"It's thirty degrees outside, Jane." Once her coat was on she took the tank before pausing and with a balance only yoga could inhibit she leaned her weight backward just enough to tip toe and place a chaste kiss on Janes cheek. The same cheek. Jane opened the door for her in a daze, Maura had said goodnight or goodbye or thank you for dinner, she wasn't sure but then she was gone and Jane was left alone, freezing yet.

##

When she dropped off George Herman the next day and for the weekend (since their experiment called for forty eight hours away from one another) Jane wanted to show Maura that she understood she too felt a sort of weight when the other left, so she leaned in to press a small kiss on her cheek before opening the door for her.

"I'll see you tonight."

Maura smiled at the kiss on the cheek, Jane was a quick study after all. Conditioning wouldn't be as painful as she thought, It was important to note it wasn't that she wanted to control Jane's behavior, just make her realize that it was okay to feel a certain way and express it a certain way. "I haven't yet decided if I am going to adhere to this control." She admitted as they stood beside one another at the open door, a tight and chilly breeze pressed against them as they talked.

Jane chuckled. "Casual okay? You're gonna make it weird if you wear a thousand dollar bracelet."

Maura rolled her eyes. "I don't own—" She stopped herself. "Casual."

Jane nodded. "Yes."

"Denim?"

Jane shrugged. "Sure."

"I don't own denim."

Jane furrowed a brow. "What about those jeans—"

Maura nodded quickly. "Ah yes, I suppose I do."

Jane snorted. "One item, God help her."

"Jeans?" Her brows knitted together in concern. "Maybe I should have—"

"You said you wanted a traditional—"

"There isn't anything traditional about us."

"Dinner and a movie, Maura, we aren't going to the moon."

She sighed dismissively and hugged her coat against her and adjusted her colorful scarf. "For science."

"You're nervous." Jane grinned a little knowing she felt it too.

Maura tossed her a small grin as well. The breeze hitting them flushed her cheeks some. "I keep on thinking about what I would normally do to prepare for a night out, a date." She looked at Jane. "But then I know it's with you, and so all the little things that mattered before seem so silly." She pursed her lips together in a pleasant frustration. "It's very confusing."

Jane nodded. "So… Then I don't have to shave?"

Maura burst out laughing. "Do you normally?"

The detective shrugged. "It depends."

"On?"

Now Jane was chuckling. "Maybe I shouldn't answer."

"Maybe not."

"Will you let me know if Novak is released into questioning? I wanna send Frankie to check up on him."

Maura adjusted her red handbag and nodded. "You're taking this suspension surprisingly well."

Jane shrugged, she supposed she was. "Don't tell anyone."

Maura gave her an affectionate look. One Jane knew she reserved for when she hadn't had to be coaxed into ordering kale or when she brought her down lunch without even checking if Maura had eaten yet. Jane Rizzoli was all fluff and stuff on the inside, all human, no, she wouldn't tell anyone. "No baby carrots." She reminded as she took a step into the cold March morning to leave.

Jane nodded. "I'm gonna grab some spinach and—" She looked at her right palm where she had written something down when Maura called earlier to let her know she was on her way with Gorge Herman. "Parsley, endive… tequila." She pulled her palm down. "You think the little guy takes lime?"

Maura smiled. "Goodbye, Jane."

After closing the door and welcoming George back to the apartment Jane moved to pour herself another cup of coffee and open her refrigerator. There on a plate still unprepared was her sandwich; on the shelf beneath it sat the glass dish of the vegetable lasagna her mother had brought over last night. She reached for the glass dish and put it on the counter.

Had Maura expected her to kiss her on the cheek this morning? Jane wondered as she ate the cold leftovers. She had a feeling she did. The tall woman groaned inwardly a smile playing at her lips the whole time when she realized she certainly did. She wasn't that slick you know, Maura, but somehow Jane found herself amused by the medical examiner's new expectation.

Her phone began to buzz loudly between she and George. "Rizzoli." She answered and reached for her mug to wash her breakfast down.

"Detective Rizzoli."

Jane coughed a little. "Uh, Agent Davies."

"You finally pulled the trigger on us huh? I haven't heard from you in a while. I thought you might change your mind on our offer. Did you get my email?" He sounded hopeful but confident.

Jane nodded dumbly. "I did, I did, yeah I just finished the application yesterday. They have to schedule my psych evaluation."

"Leave it to me, when is best? We can have you do it in Boston if you like. When you're done you can take me out for a drink and tell me about how it made you feel."

Jane chuckled. "Yeah right."

"Seriously, we have mobile recruitment units all over. I have to run now but I'll be in town in a week or so. Would you be available?"

"For the drink or the exam?"

She could hear him smiling. "Both."

"I'd have to see, I'm heading to New York with Maura for something—" Another decision she had made on her run. She really wanted to see Tasha. She had ideas to open the Frost Memorial Scholarship for new applicants and wanted to run it by the two of them in person.

"Even better! That's my next stop after Boston."

"Oh… alight."

"Great, I'll have HR email you some details on the when and the how and I'll give you a ring once it's all set up."

Jane hung up and looked over at George. "What was I supposed to say?" He put himself in his shell. "Nice, no tequila for you."

 **AN: Sorry for the delay! Writer's block and real life happenings. As always thanks for reading and tell me what you think!**

 **KathleenDee**


	11. Chapter 11

When Maura opened the door for her Jane had trouble finding the correct manner in which to process oxygen. "Maur—a" Was what came out, nothing like the smooth and casual greeting she had practiced in her bathroom mirror, or her hall mirror, or her rare-view mirror, just a strangled somewhat flattering kind of grunt. Jane hadn't even recognized it as her own voice for a split second. She almost dropped the cleaned casserole dish she was holding in her hand partly because her palms were sweating so much from the short drive over. The ME grinned. "You're cheating, c'mon!" Jane finally managed to catch herself and motioned to the flowy maxi dress with deep colors of gold cinnamon, midnight blue and crimson, and the plunging neckline that was going to be an issue.

She looked like she was a going to buried with a Pharaoh or sacrificed or something equally flattering yet mortally dangerous.

Maura frowned as she stepped aside for Jane to enter her house before closing the door behind her. "This _is_ casual."

"You look like you're going to an opera!"

"This is hardly the right material for it, feel." She offered a patch of the material to which Jane fingered before letting it go and shaking her head. "See?"

"Oh I can see alright." She motioned to her cleavage which Maura laughed at. "C'mon Maura you're setting me up to fail, put those away!"

A bit of a blush mingled with her applied variety. "Jane I feel perfectly comfortable in this, this is casual for me."

"You'll be cold." She warned.

"I have a coat."

"What about for inside the restaurant?" Shouldn't there be some shawl thing to go along with it? There was always a shawl.

Maura tilted her head and examined her friend closely; she hadn't exactly followed the control either. The detective was wearing a crisp dark navy button down, one she never wore for work. Maura could tell by the slightly silken material of it. A leather jacket, her boots and her "going out" black jeans and if she paid an even closer eye (which she did) Jane had even take care to wash her hair and put on a little foundation. Hardy casual, but very interesting. They both wanted to look nice for the other. "Jane?"

She was talking. "—It's not exactly—what?"

"How do I look?"

Jane blinked. "How do you look?" She asked it incredulously. Maura nodded "Maura you look gorgeous, you always look gorgeous that's the proble—" She caught on. "Oh."

Maura nodded slowly. If they were trying this they had to try this. "You look very nice as well." She took the cleaned dish out of Jane's now fidgety hands and moved to bring it into the kitchen for Angela. "Now I just need to get a shawl."

Jane turned and watched her carefully. "Can we start over?"

Maura chuckled and stepped barefoot toward her hall where the stairs were. "I'll only be a moment more, Jane."

Jane nodded and moved into the living room. She took off her jacket and rested it on the couch before sitting down herself, because she knew well now that "Only a minute" meant a realistic ten minutes and she knew better from all those other times Maura had insisted she'd be "only a minute."

This wasn't like any of those times though.

Jane dried her palms firmly in her jeans and then checked the time on her small silver wristwatch. They had more than enough time for their reservation and their movie but she wanted to get Maura out of this house as soon as humanly possible to avoid—

"Janie!?"

Jane sat up quickly. "Frankie!" Her voice changed and she wore a twisted sort expression of guilt and happiness.

Her younger brother strolled into the living room all grins clad in light blue jeans and a worn grey shirt. He was holding a beer. The sibling in her wanted to point out that he had better replace it because Maura only bought those for her, but seeing as she really didn't want to call upon attention to herself even being there to pick Maura up she kept her mouth shut and watched the icy beverage perspire in one of her very own Red Sox coozies.

Frankie came over to stand behind the couch and capped a brotherly hand on her shoulder. "I really thought you'd call more."

Jane looked up at him and managed to smile through her anxiety. "Well sometimes we all need a break."

"You gonna fight this suspension? I mean they can't put it on your jacket, its horse shit."

"Watch your mouth!" Angela emerged from the back door near the kitchen and Jane's smile turned grimace.

"What is Tommy here too?" Jane stood now.

Frankie shook his head. "Nah, but I am babysitting TJ with Ma."

"You're babysitting TJ?" Jane pointed at his beer. "Drunk?"

"This is my only one!" he protested in that high pitched Frankie sort of way. "Plus Janie he's not even here yet."

She put her hands on her hips. "And who died and made you babysitter, I babysit TJ."

" _We_." Maura's voice could be heard near the door correcting the detective. She came into the room with a shawl over her shoulders and holding a black leather handbag.

"Wow, Maura." Frankie nodded. "You look great."

"Thank you, Frank."

Jane resisted the urge to bop her brother behind the head. "Don't call him Frank."

"Where are you two going all dressed up?" Angela asked pointing to them both as she leaned against the kitchen island. She noted with motherly suspicion that her daughter had ironed her shirt.

Angela's question was ignored as the three continued.

"Tommy reached out to me early today, Jane." Maura folded her shawl over her arm.

"Yeah and Maura said you two weren't available so it's cool uncle Frankie for a change, give it up Janie." Frankie chuckled at the not so pleased look his sister wore.

Jane was trying to decide which issue to handle first. "First off I'm the only cool relative the kid has." She looked over to Maura. "He asked you?"

Maura nodded as she placed the shoes she was also holding with her shawl down and slipped into them making her grow an impressive inch. Though she were as anxious to get out of there as well she couldn't help be amused. "Do you recall scheduling the last four sittings?"

Jane thought for a moment and allowed herself to be amused as well. She motioned to Maura but looked at her younger brother. "I didn't tell you that Maura's my new personal assistant?" Frankie shook his head. "It's great really, she organizes my calendar and I never have to look up how to spell another word ever again."

"As if you did before." Maura shook her head.

"I wonder if Nina would organize my calendar for me." Frankie mused.

"What calendar?" Jane reached for her leather jacket to put it on.

"Where is Nina anyway?" Maura asked looking around. Work had been so busy she missed their stolen coffee breaks.

Frankie shrugged. "Out with some girlfriends."

"Where are you two off too?" Angela asked again.

Jane shook her head. "Dinner, Ma."

"You look very nice, Janie." Angela crossed her arms and leaned back some.

Jane narrowed her eyes at the compliment but Maura grabbed her arm to stop any further comment. "Doesn't she? I thought it would be nice."

Frankie nodded slowly. "Well if TJs not asleep when you guys come back come in alright? I'm sure he's gonna wanna see you two."

##

"Jane it slipped my mind."

"Nothing slips your mind."

"Do you really believe that I would keep you from your nephew whom I adore mind you." Maura was surprised to have Jane follow her around the passenger's side of her unmarked car and open it for her to get in. The ME stood to face her, the door slid in between them but they remained face to face.

Jane sighed. "No."

"Are you disappointed that he didn't ask you?"

Jane shook her head. "I guess I never noticed that he'd go through you first." Why? Maura was pretty much family but why not just ask her himself?

Maura nodded slowly. "I did."

"You know something I don't, Dr. Isles?"

Maura smiled seeing the stitch of frustration leave Jane's features completely. "Perhaps."

"Get in the car so I can close the door for you." Jane pretended to bother.

Maura did as she was told but when Jane got into the driver's side and buckled her seat belt she couldn't help but point something out. "I wonder if you hold doors for all your dates." Knowing that Jane had only really dated men.

Jane shifted the car into drive and mentally thought out the route towards the docks before looking over at Maura. "What like with Dean?"

She noted interestingly enough that she hadn't brought up Casey or Davies. An observation for another time. Maura nodded. "Yes, like Agent Dean."

Jane chuckled at the idea of it as she drove. "No."

"And you do for me?"

Jane glanced at her. "Well you're Maura."

"A woman?"

"Yes a woman, and Maura."

Maura hummed. "I am perfectly capable of opening doors for myself you know."

Maura was perfectly capable of many things. If anyone knew it it was Jane. "I know, but…I don't want you to."

"You don't want me to?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Maura, I've always opened doors for you."

"Not car doors."

Jane shrugged. "Well that's like another level of respect isn't it?"

"Is it respect or chivalry?"

"Aren't they the same?"

"You respected Gabriel, but you never opened a door for him."

"God don't call him Gabriel." Jane groaned. "And can we not talk about my exes on our experiment?"

Maura chuckled. "I just found it interesting."

Jane took one hand off the wheel to motion with it for emphasis. "It's how I was raised, Maura. You do it for women you y'know.." She flanked a hand at her. "Want to make feel special and feel important and…y'know that's just it." She capped her hand back on the wheel and kept her eyes forward now. Why did she always have so many questions?

"I see."

They were silent for a few blocks.

"It doesn't offend you does it?" Jane asked glancing at her friend.

"No no, it's… nice to know what it means to you." She thought for a moment. "I would like to open the car door for you when we arrive."

Jane nodded still keeping her eyes forward. "Okay, we can do that," and so when they finally found a parking spot on the side end of the Salem street Jane pulled the keys out of the ignition and looked over at Maura. "Here we are."

Maura nodded looking out the window trying to figure out where they were going before jumping to attention and quickly gathering herself so she could get out of the car and open the driver's side door for Jane. The whole ordeal kept them blushing furiously and laughing all the same.

"Mademoiselle." Maura put an arm out for Jane.

The tall woman shook her head and allowed herself to be assisted. "You're liking this way too much."

Maura grabbed a hold of Jane's arm and wrapped hers in it and grinned. "I see now why men do it."

"Why?" Jane managed to auto lock her car and slip the keys into her pockets before pointing up the block to a restaurant in the distance. "There."

The evening was dark and cold, the air dry, and though Salem street was an off shoot to a main avenue of bars and restaurants bustling with activity their route was remotely calm.

They began the walk. "Its empowering." Maura nodded after struggling to find the right word. Jane smelled nice, different.

Jane nodded. "Yeah you do feel like you're doing something."

Maura nodded to herself. She was trying to mentally note everything so she was ready for the questionnaire but throughout the night she would come to realize that she was caught with moments just like this where she forgot to remember and instead just took a pleasant stock of their surroundings and Jane's facial expressions, it was like the part of her brain that processed complete thought and transferred it to long term memory (her limbic system) had decided to malfunction. She could only recall how Jane smelt on that walk, and how that mixed with the dampness of the pavement from a brief cold shower that afternoon, or Jane's right eyebrow and how it remained in a degree creased the entire evening, and how she thought it were cute.

Something instate told her that this wasn't a chiari malformation back pedal, she was just… enjoying their time.

"Aren't you going to ask me where we are going?" Jane asked impatiently. Maura had been silent for a block so.

"No." The doctor put simply.

"So it's not Oyster Bar."

"Oh."

"It's just around the corner from it though." The continued to walk until the passed the trendy oyster spot on Salem with the line running aside the building. "I think it's owned by the same people though, Maillard." Maura chuckled. "What?"

"A seafood restaurant called Maillard, I've never heard of it." Jane gave her a look. "Maillard reaction is when amino acids and reducing sugars brown and crisp. It's usually reserved for referring to steak though. Scallops ironically enough have enough sugars to caramelize but that's a whole different chemical reaction." She nodded.

"I don't think they have steak here, Maura.'

"I wonder if it's because their more popular restaurant is so close."

Jane thought on it, the menu looked good online and she was sure Maura hadn't been there since they just recently opened for business that fall, and because the tables weren't clothed with the finest of linen. Maura loved to go out to those types of places, but the medical examiner often cooked her own food at home. The price was right and they had these cozy booths that offered some privacy so Jane figured it was worth a shot.

The restaurant itself reminded her of a shoe box. Dusted with a stringing of tasteful white holiday lights the back restaurant wall was made of complete glass leaving an amazing view of the water at night and casting a sort of darkness to the place. The décor was finished to look like an old fisherman's vessel, all dark and sodded with iron accents to replace the Rodgers anchors.

"Reservation for two, Rizzoli." Maura unlinked their arms. "We're a little early."

The young hostess nodded and pressed a few buttons on her touch screen and then smiled up at them. "No problem, please follow me." She grabbed two of the single page menus and led the way to the back of the restaurant near the window to a tiny leather booth for two.

"Jane this place is magnificent." Maura looked around as they sat in and their hostess placed the menus in front of them. "Very romantic, not cliché at all."

Jane chuckled and grabbed for her menu. "Well it's…" She shrugged not really knowing what to say. What? _It's were I take all my best friends on our first date_. Didn't really sound right. "I knew you'd like it." She watched as Maura took off her coat and got situated.

Maura smiled at her. The dim lighting making her hair seem even more golden. "I'm so excited."

Jane chuckled. "Well don't get too crazy over there I don't think they have anything fancy, but I figured a couple lobster rolls and maybe some shrimp?" She looked down at her menu. "They have crab too."

Maura had her menu on the table to look down at. "Let's get a little of everything."

"Okay."

"There is even a small cocktail list."

Jane flipped her menu over. "Where?"

"Right below the lobster rolls." Maura looked up and blushed when Jane looked back down quickly. Had she been staring? The idea of it drank her up and suddenly Maura was made very aware of the notion that Jane found her attractive.

Jane was busying herself with reading the menu allowed. "… Inspired by seasonal ingredients from local farmers and distilleries…"

"Jane."

"The margarita sounds good." Jane kept her eyes on the menu. She had been caught. She curled her bottom lip in and made a face of distracted indecision, one so cleverly placed would often work, but this was Maura. "Yup?"

Maura leaned forward and touched her friend's arm across from her. "It's okay to look."

Jane motioned to the menu without looking up. "I'm looking, they've got a martini here too that sounds pretty good but I won't have one. I have to drive. What do you think would happen if one of the guys pulled me over—"

"At me."

Behind the menu the doctor could see just Janes eyebrows knit and wanted to chuckle but held it in. "You were, right?" Jane dropped the menu and looked straight at her pointedly.

"Maura."

"Do you feel wrong for it?"

"No."

"But you do notice…"

"How can I _not_ notice them?" Jane motioned to her cleavage. "We need to get two extra menus for them." Maura laughed loudly. "It's not funny. Whatever happened to this control?"

"Do you find that you can't _control_ —"

"Oh shut up."

Maura's ears burned with blush but she couldn't help but continue to laugh. She honestly really enjoyed the dress and never got to wear it. She had no clue Jane would be so bothered by it, or rather her in it.

"It's perfectly natural. Isn't it why we are here?"

"No Maura, we're here because for whatever reason you talked me into talking to myself about this thing I swore I never talked to myself about, not your… your—"

"Breasts?"

"Yes!"

She played offended. "Not even little about them?"

"You're my best friend; I can't exactly look at them."

"Well what would you do on a regular date?"

"I try not to date men with a wrack like yours."

Their waters came and Maura found she was incredibly thirsty. "I should hope not." Their atmosphere had returned to its relaxed ease though. "If you found something physically attractive in a man, how would you show interest?"

"What like his lengthy metacarpals?"

Maura chuckled "Precisely."

"Well…I'd…." She shrugged not really knowing. "I don't know. I wouldn't ogle him though."

"When you look at me Jane I feel appreciated. Ogling implies a lecherous manner."

"Maura."

"It's true."

"Maura it's just…" She shrugged again. "New…new to notice things I had always noticed but never really…"

"Wanted to notice about your best friend." Jane nodded. Maybe there was some more figuring out to do, but it was nice to have Jane so open about how she was feeling. They were quiet for a moment. The ME secretly wondering how much information she could pull from the openness, the detective praying they would stop talking about her breasts. With an internal sigh of relief Maura picked up her menu again and began to browse it. Jane watched for any signs of resuming the conversation and when she found none she looked at her own menu. "Would you like to split a lobster roll?" Maura asked after reading the description and thinking she might want to try it.

Jane shook her head as she read. "Split? No, I want a whole one."

"You do remember how you felt after eating all that movie theater candy last weekend right?"

Jane paid her no mind. "We should also get some stone crab, I read the mustard here is really good."

They ordered all they could imagine they might want to eat, a glass of Picpoul Blanc for Maura, a bright and wheaty beer for Jane. Their drink order came almost immediately.

"Delicious." Maura smiled after taking her first sip. "How's your beer?" Jane was wiping of a cute foamed mustache with the back of her hand.

"Perfect." Maura nodded and Jane nodded and then they both began to chuckle. "Maura this is a little weird." Jane leaned forward toward her as if sharing a secret with her best friend and not the woman she was on a date with.

"I have to admit. I think we know each other too well to ask the usual first date questions."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"One, A half sister." She watched as Jane sat back in the small booth and relaxed putting her right arm onto its back. "Also only one kidney." She picked up her wine glass and nodded at Jane's apparent shock. "Mhm." She took a sip of her wine. "You?"

"Nope."

Maura chuckled. "Oh c'mon, how do you introduce your brothers?"

"I say I have two of them, and it's hard sometimes because they're still potty training." Maura continued to laugh. "Then at some point my date realizes their grown men, and that's another joke right there."

"Very good. It shows your insistent need to poke fun."

Jane reached for her beer. "I would ask you your favorite color but we don't have all night."

Maura motioned. "Some have made that mistake."

"Aha, see I'm ahead of the curve."

Maura only smiled. "Quite."

"How was work today?"

"Are you asking me or Korsak?"

Jane made a twisted face to which Maura laughed at "I'm asking you, obviously."

"You know you should just call him."

"He hasn't called me."

"He wants you to rest."

"It's a test."

Maura took another sip of her wine. "I wasn't aware."

Jane shook her head. "No Maura like a fake test." She put her glass down and leaned her elbows against the table. "He wants to see if I can handle not being involved in everything while Im gone, butting in."

She smiled softly. "Unless you have remote access that I'm not aware of I'd say you've taken this all… oddly well."

Jane huffed. "It sucks."

"You haven't called him though."

Jane shrugged. She supposed, she hadn't realized. "I haven't called Frankie either."

"What does it mean? I wonder."

Jane circled the rim of her beer glass with her finger before picking the glass up again and then putting it down. "Speaking of phone calls—"

"Alright here we have the shrimp and crab cakes to start." Their waitress interrupted to put the two dishes between them along with two share plates. Out of habit both women stacked the small share plates and pushed them to the side. They always just ate off of each other's plate; the small nudges toward polite, impersonal sharing were always lost on them.

Maura put her napkin on her lap and used a fork to reach out to cut a small crab cake in half for an even more manageable bite. "Phone calls?"

Jane was already wiping her buttery fingers off onto her napkin and trying to correct her table manners for date appropriate ones as she chewed the perfectly grilled piece of shrimp deliberately. "Um, yeah." She brought her fork out and tried to imitate the delicate divides Maura was working with her own instrument. "I got a call from Davies."

"Oh." She hoped it hadn't sounded as surprised as she was.

Jane was too busy trying to navigate her own reasons for bringing it up that she hadn't noticed. "To schedule my psych eval."

The ME brought her fork to her mouth and paused. "I wasn't aware a he were a recruitment agent." She teased before eating.

Jane shrugged. "Pass me the lemon?" Maura handed her a small wedge on the side closet to her as she chewed. "Thanks…" The table fell quiet as Maura took her time to count her chews and Jane spritzed lemon juice thoroughly on a single piece of shrimp. "He's not, he's just being…"

"Interested." Maura nodded.

Jane couldn't read her expression but for some reason she knew Maura was messing with her. She groaned. "I guess." She took a bite of shrimp and then motioned to Maura dramatically. "Which by the way you have to help me prep for, I really don't think I'd pass on my own."

She chuckled. "Jane it is a psychological evaluation, there shouldn't be any peroration necessary."

"Well…" She waited to finish chewing. "I still need help with it. You've done one before right?"

Maura reached for her wine. "Years ago for volunteer work, this is hardly the same."

Jane shook her head. "Well I'm taking it in New York so you said in a month right? I have some time."

"You'll come with me?"

The smile Maura expressed was one that made Jane laugh it was one that she hoped to see more.

Jane nodded. "Why not right?"

Maura took care to calibrate her excitement. "We have so much to do!"

"Maura—"

"And I'll have to now make sure I get you a ticket to my panel—"

"Orrrr I can go see the Rangers play?" Maura's face fell. "While you do that science thing…" She gave her a look. "Ah c'mon."

"It's my first time being invited to panel in the area of forensic pathology. Tasha is coming."

"That's because I haven't invited her to the game yet." Jane nodded.

Maura smirked knowing full well that Jane Rizzoli would be there. "I'm confident she will take my side."

Jane huffed but smiled at her friend before taking a gulp of her beer. "Alright but hockey is a must, you may as well tack on checking out a few breweries too, especially if your panel is before nine AM."

"Ooh and the Bronx Museum of Arts and The Guggenheim all have new winter rotations that I've read about." Jane opened her mouth to say something but ended up jumping slightly in her seat. "What is it?"

Jane put her beer down and reached into her back pocket. She narrowed her eyes and then motioned the cell phone to Maura. "Dispatch."

Maura shook her head. "Well that can't be right, aren't you suspended?" She put her wine glass down and reached for her hand bag. She had four missed calls.

"Rizzoli." Jane answered her phone with a frown. "Listen Kennedy I'm— What?" Jane shot out of her seat and motioned for Maura to get up. "Where?" She "I'm on my way—No-Yes, she's with me." Jane hung up and was reaching in her back pocket for her wallet to put some cash on the table to cover their meal.

"Jane, what is it?"

"Maura we have to go."

Maura watched with increasing concern as Jane carelessly threw more money on the table than even responsibly necessary in a controlled panic. "What is it?"

"Ma's been in an accident."

Maura grabbed her shawl and then the car keys out of Jane's hand as they turned to leave. "I'm driving."


	12. Chapter 12

"Were you drunk? Were you high? Did you eat breakfast this morning—"

"Jane." Maura tried again.

Jane put a hand out. "No Maura I'm not done."

Ron shook his head. "I'm telling you Jane, I was approaching the light—"

"Are you sure? Couldn't it have been yellow? Was it yellow?—"

"I have twenty twenty in both eyes Detective, just listen to me." Ron said firmly. He had already been through levels of this when Frankie and Nina arrived and he was done with the insinuation that he was fumbling old man behind the wheel. He was a safe driver; he had driven for longer than they could walk and never once got into an accident. The light just…changed.

Maura had a firm hand on Jane's arm. Someone had to, it looked like Jane was ready to throttle the poor guy. "Jane. Angela is going to be fine. I have spoken with her doctors, just let him explain."

The taller woman growled under her breath that there had better be a damn good explanation for why her mother was getting stiches right now and then crossed her arms securely to her chest. "Fine, speak."

Ron sent Maura a thankful look. "The light just changed."

"Traffic lights don't just change, Ron."

"Green, to red. Just like that, we were in the back of the line; all the others slammed the breaks too."

"Janie!"

Jane turned to see Tommy running down the bustling hospital hallway with her father not far behind. "Tommy." The two embraced quickly.

"She okay? Ma okay? Ah man she has to be okay." Tommy's face was red with emotion and took a moment to let his sister go. "Janie she's gotta be okay, where's Frankie? Maura." He noticed the doctor and immediately let go of Jane completely in exchange for her. "Is she okay?"

Maura could feel Frank Sr.'s eyes on her but ignored it. Tommy looked like he would lose his mind if not given a straight answer, "She will be fine."

"Thank God." He exhaled heavily and held his head. "Ah man…"

Jane watched her father closely. "Frankie and Nina took TJ and are making sure she gets her own room once she's done with some tests….Where the hell were you two?"

"Nice to see you too, sweetheart." Her father nodded.

Tommy shifted his weight. "What kind of idiot doesn't stop at a red light?"

Ron stepped forward. "This kind of idiot. It just changed you know I would never drive recklessly with your mom in the car Tomm—"

"Who the hell are you?" Frank asked suddenly shifting his curiosity from Maura to the stranger. "Her caretaker?"

Ron had already learned all he needed to learn about Frank Rizzoli from Angela. He simply shook his head and crossed his arms. "I'm guessing you're Frank."

Jane's father nodded proudly. "When the mother of my kids ends up in the hospital I wanna make sure everything is okay, sue me."

"You can be here if you want, I don't think she would want to see you though."

"If I want? You can't tell me what to do."

Jane grabbed Tommy's collar and pulled him aside forcedly.

"Aye!"

"What in the hell were you thinking bringing him here, Tommy?"

"I wasn't thinking at all! I got a call from Frankie that Ma was in the hospital we were at a meeting together—" He grabbed his collar back.

"You were at a meeting?"

"Yeah y'know 'cause I'm not gonna just yell at him and kick him while he's down, you threatened to arrest him? That's real low, Janie."

"He showed up to the precinct drunk Tommy, harassing Maura in the middle of an autopsy—"

"What the big deal sometimes I go say hi to her—"

"This is why you will never understand what an ass he's being, because you're one too."

"Oh I'm an ass huh? Where were you tonight sis?" Tommy bit.

"Where was I? At dinner Tommy, what the heck is that supposed to mean?"

Tommy shrugged. He actually didn't know where that comment had come from, but in the chaos of war while weapons were scares he often reverted to just blurting things aloud and with confidence regardless of their relevance.

"—Don't you have some other family to be looking out for?" Frank sneered. He didn't like Ron, he really didn't like him. Sure he had moved on and sure Angela would have too but at least Sean Cavanaugh was a tempered man. Ron was too calm, too sure of himself and his place in his family.

Frankie and Nina rounded a corner with TJ holding Nina's hand and as if on cue both verbal scuffles died down almost immediately to greet the toddler. Maura shook her head in amazement before exchanging a look with Nina one would describe as welcoming. She hadn't been around many full blown Rizzoli family debacles and looked a little alarmed.

Frankie shook his head at them. "Well now that we're all here…" He motioned to Nina. "Pop, Nina, Nina, my somewhat estranged father." The middle Rizzoli didn't give the time to shake hands. "We're getting married."

"Daddy!" TJ ran to his father's legs and hugged them. Behind the denim of Tommy's jeans he looked up everyone. "Grandma gonna be okay?"

Tommy bent down and rubbed his back. "Yeah bud, grandma's gonna be okay." He looked back up at Maura, a fashion of the same panic he had earlier briefed. "Right Maura? That's what you said right?"

And suddenly all eyes were on her.

"I'm… not her doctor—"

Jane sighed and motioned to TJ's wide eyes. "Maura."

"A few lacerations. I'd imagine they would want to keep her overnight for observation…. As a precaution to any brain damage or internal bleeding not yet recognizable though scans."

"Bweeding!?" TJ wailed.

Jane uncrossed her arms and got down to TJ's level but not before tossing her best friend a "really?" Jane wiped off some debris from TJ's shirt that only children seemed to have on them before nodding at him. "What Aunty Maura meant was uh…that when you get a bump there is stuff you have to look at on both sides." She explained by poking him in the side. TJ giggled.

Nina nodded. "Right little man, it's like actually pretty cool."

Ron nodded. "Totally harmless."

"Grandma has a bump?"

"Uh…" Frankie nodded once. "Right, we just gotta make sure she knows we're here for her…for company."

Frank Sr. nodded. "Hospitals are where families go together."

The little boy nodded in understanding. "Rizzoli?" He asked Jane.

She poked him again and the toddler began to erupt into a fit of laughter; his worry now long forgotten for play time with his aunt. "That's right bud, we're Rizzoli's."

##

Jane handed Maura a paper cup of hot coffee. "I just think it's not really helping him to imply that every medical concern can be summarized as a bump, Jane."

Jane robotically pushed another clamp down to the coffee urn in the cafeteria to refresh her cup. It was now getting close to midnight and all the family time together in the cramp waiting room was starting to kill her. Literally take her life. She couldn't look at her father, and Maura was too into some medical journal she had probably bought off a passing doctor to entertain her. Tommy and TJ had passed out. Nina was on her tablet while Frankie tried his best to stay neutral by sitting in the middle of everyone but even Jane noticed him glancing at his father glancing at his fiancé.

She needed to stretch her legs and breathe.

The detective was glad her mother would be okay, but she was also now seeing she was faced with a reality that Frank was in fact her father, and if anything happened to her brothers or her mother again he, she supposed justly, would want to be there. It irked her that he would get to be, he didn't get to be. Not after leaving them like he did. Just because he decided to be sober today didn't mean he suddenly got that right. It was making everyone uncomfortable, especially poor Maura and Nina. Who now that she thought about it would also be there if anything happened to anyone too.

"The kid has only known bumps and booboos, Maura." Jane looked down at her coffee and decided not to add sugar.

"Booboos hold very little medical description."

Jane smiled tiredly. "Maura."

"It's true." She smiled a little at Jane's goofed expression now. "Oh good, I was afraid your face would stay scowled forever." They capped their coffees and walked toward the end of the sterile smelling hospital café and sat down at a small round table near a large window. It looked rainy outside, Maura knew a few degrees colder and ice would soon form and make driving difficult. This accident could have been a lot worse for Angela.

Jane let herself chuckle but then returned her thoughts on the evening turned night. "I can't help it."

Maura nodded and rested her elbows on the table to lean forward some. "Sure you can."

"I'm pissed, Maura."

"I know, but what will that change, he's here right?"

"Well I can't exactly ask him to leave can I?"

"You could have, although I think you realize that it would take the focus away from your mother."

"Yeah…You okay? I mean… " She hadn't exactly told Maura what happened on the phone that night, not the full extent of it. Maura reached for her coffee and nodded simply. "Okay." She remembered something then. "Why was Kennedy looking for you first and not me?"

Maura was hoping she wouldn't have noticed but Jane was a detective. It was near humorous how she often forgot what that entailed.

Jane watched carefully as Maura put her coffee cup down and considered her words. A truth was coming.

"A year ago Angela had a syncopic episode."

Jane's eyes widened, "Fainted?"

"She was only dehydrated Jane, and I was with her at home." Jane opened her mouth again. "She didn't want you to know."

Jane exhaled heavily. "I should be more surprised."

"You do the same."

"Hide booboos?"

"From me too."

It was true. Jane groaned softly and ran a hand through her hair. "She can't just fall Maura, she's old but she's not _that_ old, and she's my Ma so…"

"So she must live forever."

"Yes." Jane answered seriously which made Maura smile at her and reach to cover her hand on the table. "I guess… I guess I always imagined I'd never really have to worry about her like this…" She shrugged. "I'm not exactly a gym teacher y'know?" Admitting it out loud made her feel both guilty and depressed. She loved what she did but Jane wasn't naïve to the fact that in her career she continued to cash her luck. Skill and wit most certainly, determination and instinct of course, but there was something to it, some charm she dare not tempt with ignoring it.

Maura knew, it didn't help her stomach from tightening and her heart rate from increasing at the sheer possibility of a world without Jane Rizzoli. "The occupational hazards are marginally different." She managed to keep her tone even and supportive.

"My point, Maura."

"I said I wouldn't mention it if we went through all the proper medical channels, eight specialists. If I was not going to tell you I needed to know it wasn't anything you'd need to worry about." She tilted her head. "It hasn't been easy."

"Lying to me?"

"I'd never lie to you, Jane."

"Well…" Jane looked away but knew Maura had only surprised her because she had done something she herself would do. "Still doesn't explain why Kennedy—"

"Your mother appointed me her Power of Attorney for medical emergencies."

Jane found her face. "She…?"

"She doesn't want any of you to have to make any decision you couldn't, and since it was Frank prior…."

"And he'd pull the plug for a race horse." Jane crossed her arms on the table.

Maura pulled her hand away. "I told her I would need to think about it, and when I had given it proper consultation I agreed." She considered her coffee not really knowing what the look on Jane's face meant, it was new. "It would be difficult... given our closeness, but I understand her reasoning, and if it came to it she has already went through what she wants…" Jane didn't say anything. "This isn't that time though, Jane. She will be fine."

The detective shook her head at herself. "When'd she faint, Maura?"

"A year ago."

"When?"

"During the summer, August I believe."

Jane looked down at her paper cup. She didn't remember August. She had been so wrapped in a case that she could barely remember anything about the month. Korsak had a birthday in August; they all went out for drinks…

Maura watched her friend's mind churn the information. "No one has ever asked me to do anything so important." Maura shifted in her seat to comfort herself. "I hope you understand I did not want to betray her confidence."

Jane shook her head. "You don't sound sorry."

Maura nodded as they locked eyes. "I'm not."

"When were you going to tell me?"

"I'd hoped I never had to."

Jane sighed heavily and let up a small but tired smile. "Yeah…"

In exchange for Jane's smile Maura let her seriousness soften just a little. "You aren't upset?"

"No." The slender woman brought her shoulders forward and reached for her paper mug to take a sip of her coffee. "Ma has her reasons." Jane decided. She had a headache but even past that she could see that this wasn't a decision her mother or Maura had taken lightly.

"You won't bring it up will you?"

Jane huffed. "Damn right I will. If anything happens to her I guarantee I'm the one that's gonna be stuck with all those stupid doilies she ordered, I need to have some kind of say in something."

Maura chuckled softly. "Jane, that's horrible."

The detective let out a large breath of air as the nervous hum of any family emergency began to leave her system. "Just stitches right? That's what they said?"

Maura nodded. "All her tests came back negative, which is a very good sign."

Jane leaned back in the small plastic chair she sat in. "You think she's not letting us in because she's embarrassed of all the yelling in the hall?"

"Probably."

Jane huffed. "Smart." Maura smiled back at her and let it fall gracefully when Jane stared at her a moment more.

"What is it?" She reached for her cheek.

"You're still all dressed up." She must have just noticed it.

A faint burning hit her ears but Maura nodded after looking down at her dress. It was beginning to wrinkle. "I am."

"I can drive you home. Get a change of clothes?"

Maura shook her head firmly. "No, I'd like to stay, Jane."

Jane nodded before taking another sip of her coffee. Maura did the same. "So I guess this means no homework right?" The medical examiner raised a brow. "No questionnaire."

Maura's face creased in great concern. "I don't think there is enough qualitative data to complete it no." She reached into the black clutch she had brought with her and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.

Jane's brows shot up as she shook her head and leaned forward to look at what was on it. "You really are a Poindexter." She couldn't help a loud laugh as she first started to read the typed checklist with room for hand written notes. There weren't many.

Maura pointed a perfectly manicured finger to the first item. "Don't tease! It's pointless to not keep proper documentation during every scientific inquiry."

Jane was still shaking her head. "Oh I haven't even begun." She grabbed the paper to get a better look.

"Jane—"

"I wasn't late!" She motioned to Maura's notes after a moment of reading.

The ME crossed her arms to her chest. "You were seventeen minutes late."

Jane shook her head. "So wha, that's points off which category of the questionnaire then?"

"Dependability."

"Dependability!?"

Maura was chuckling. "Jane, lower your voice." They were still in a hospital after all.

Jane waved the paper around. "What about the time I rescued you from being tossed down an elevator shaft? Or Maura, or the time I saved you from drowning to death in the wetlands, or jail, do we need to talk about jail?" Jane huffed and slapped the paper back onto the table. "I'm gonna find a pen, you better write all this stuff down next to my seventeen minutes." Maura couldn't help her giggling now. Jane stood and pointed at her. "I'm for real Maura, wait till I find a pen."

"Jane, Maura, there you are."

Jane looked up and Maura turned in her chair at the same time both slightly red from their hilarities to see Nina clad in skinny jeans with Frankie's heavy leather jacket draped over her shoulders. Her lip gloss had faded after cup of coffee number three, and her usually bright smile was kept into tight sleepiness. She was holding her tablet.

"You two are going to want to see this."

Jane approached her. "What's up, Holiday?"

She shook her head. "Well you don't really have a talkative bunch out there." Jane crossed her arms and agreed. The tight space with all those chaise pushed so close together to maximize turn over had become too much for her. She didn't blame her. "Ron and I got to talking."

Jane suddenly felt a little bad for how fiercely she came after him. "How is he?"

"He's convinced something was off with the traffic light."

Maura had stood and was holding both she and Jane's coffee. "Electronically?" She looked over to Jane. "Well that doesn't seem likely; most traffic signals in large metro areas run on a vehicle actuation model instead of a fixed time system." Both and Nina and Jane looked at her. "What? Haven't you always wondered what controlled them?"

"No." Jane answered before letting a corner of her both twitch with amusement.

Maura shook her head. "It's very fascinating." She looked at Nina. "The data gathered adjusts traffic green time with the abundance of vehicle on the actual road."

Nina nodded. "It took me a little longer to get there but I did." She smiled at Maura. "I pulled some footage from the red light ticketing cameras at the time of the accident." She frowned then. "The cars in the front were totaled, but what was odd was that there was virtually no traffic flow to indicate a sudden green light off the main road. There were only a few cars and a shipping truck. There is no way on a vehicle actuation system that this would have happened."

"So you're saying it's broken?" Jane shook her head and then glanced at Maura when Nina shook her head no and began to poke at her tablet to bring up a grainy video of the intersection.

Jane and Maura huddled around her. "Here, at normal speed." Nina pointed a painted nail at the image before tapping play. The brief moment of quiet before loud chaotic honking and the crunching of mental could be heard as the women tried to make sense of what they were seeing.

"Ron's car." Jane motioned with her chin when she found the familiar sedan.

"Yes it certainly seems like this was too sudden to be routine." Maura agreed as she watched people leaping from their cars and running forward off camera to help the injured.

Jane looked at Nina. "You said this was regular speed?"

Nina nodded. "When I slow it down watch the east corner." She pressed a few more buttons and then hit play.

Jane watched as a grainy figure stood still at the corner with a hood over his head. His, it had to be male, the way his shoulder's squared and his overall confidence in standing on a street corner at night alone could only come from a lifetime of maleness. He wasn't a teenager, nor someone unfamiliar with Boston. He leaned momentarily on a nearby post office box. If lost or unsure of ones surroundings you wouldn't lean. He was comfortable watching traffic slow to a stop, if anyone had seen him they would think he was waiting to cross and then something happened, a movement, it took only a second. Jane had blinked.

"Go back."

Nina nodded and reversed the film per ten seconds.

"What's he doing?" Jane asked before pointing. "Look, look he's just standing there watching the crash…." She looked up at Nina. "Is there any way we can get the other street camera?"

Nina shook he head. "Broken. Facilities were to come and repair it tomorrow morning actually."

"Broken…" Jane shook her head. "Why do I get the feeling this wasn't just some crash?"

Maura shook her head as well. "A third."

"What?"

She handed Jane their coffees before pulling her cell phone out of her clutch and looking between the two women. "A third collision."

Recognition finally hit Nina. "You mean that really bad crash on Broadway last week?"

Jane nodded. "The other one on Thursday." She remembered speaking to her mother about it on the phone. "What are you doing?" Maura had been searching her phone for a number.

"Having any fatalities from this collision sent to my lab as well." Jane gave her a look. "Well wasn't that what you were going to so bossily request?" She raised a knowing brow as she brought her cell phone to her ear, Nina only chuckled. Jane couldn't help but smirk a little as Maura stepped away from them when she finally reached someone she needed. "Yes, this is Doctor Maura Isles, The Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—"

The Detective turned to Nina. "Where's Frankie?"

"Making sure we don't get kicked out of the waiting room."

Jane nodded. "Okay, I'll call Korsak, he'd be able to get us that incident report on the broken camera, and the footage from the other crashes. Could you go over this and try and get anything else out of it?"

"You got it." She began to leave.

"Oh, Holiday?" Her future sister in law turned. "Please and thank you."

Nina chuckled. "You're not _that_ bossy….more….demanding, It's good."

##

"All I'm saying Vince is that it would be fun, think about it? Seven days, the open air, water…me in a bikini?" Kiki raised a brow suggestively which made her husband chuckle. "There is a lovely retreat that sails in a month, let's do something fun in the sun while it's cold here."

The two sat crossed legged facing one another. Kiki wore a simple yoga pant and top with her hair up and Vince leaning against the wall of their living room strumming gently on his guitar in his lap while four puppies slept near their feet.

Sometimes Vince couldn't sleep. It was nothing new to him but his wife had always been bothered by it, felt sympathetic, worried. It was only once they really became an item that he realized not being able to sleep wasn't a normal thing, and now? Well Vince still couldn't sleep some nights, but now having Kiki with him, having time for just them, it was nice. Sometimes he fought to stay awake just so they could have this time together.

"Y'know? A week wouldn't hurt right?" He nodded. Kiki pumped the air in excitement. "What kind of bikini?" He chanced.

Her chuckle was interrupted by the violent buzzing and loud beeping of Vince's cell phone on a nearby end table. The puppies all began to yelp in unison and Kiki smiled at her husband knowingly before reaching over to grab the device and hand it to him.

He smiled at her, a mixture of sorry and thank you. "This is Korsak."

"Vince, its Jane."

Vince chuckled. "I knew you'd call eventually, but it's a little late, Jane."

"Ma's been in an accident."

"Oh my gosh—Angela was in an accident. " He shared when Kiki gave him a look of concern. "What happened? Where is she?" Without needing to say anything Kiki began corralling the puppies and making arrangements for them to be dropped off next door. Starsky and Hutch would be fine home alone. Korsak put his guitar aside and began looking for his pants.

"She's alright Vince. We're at the hospital—"

"Hospitals aren't where you go when you're alright." Rosy, the runt of the litter began to cry out. "It's okay Rosy. We'll be back girl." Jane was already used to the slew of weird animal noises she got whenever she called Korsak at home. She waited patiently. "I'm on my way, Jane." He finally said.

"Wait Vince!"

"What is it?"

"Just…just drive safe okay? Nina pulled something from a light camera and it's… we think someone is switching signals for sport."

"For sport?"

"Yeah… just take the back roads. I'll be here."

##

"What's up with this TV huh?" Tommy glared up at the tiny monitor in his mother's room. "Ma! Your tv is broken!"

"Can you throw something at him please?" Jane growled at Frankie before looking back at her mother adoringly "Ma, are you sure you're okay?"

Angela watched as Frankie tossed an empty plastic cup at his brother's head.

"Ow! What the heck man?"

"That didn't hurt!"

"Ma!"

Jane glared again at the two who immediately quieted and then back at her mother who she had a protective arm around the back of her large pillow and was leaning on the side of the bed to get a better look at her. "Ma, are you sure—"

Angela looked over to Maura who sat with her usual erect posture and a small smile. She had only asked to see her kids first, only because she knew Ron would understand, TJ was fast asleep, and had no idea that Frank Sr. was there and also because she was pretty certain they wouldn't leave the poor medical staff alone until they saw her with their own eyes. She was tired is all, the whole commotion of tests this and tests that all for a big ol' bump on the head? She'd done quite a bit of fussing in her day, still even, but this was too much.

"Maura honey, can you please tell her I'll be okay?"

"I know you will be okay but I'm asking about now, Ma." Jane interrupted.

Angela looked back to her right and reached for Jane's hand. "How was dinner?"

Jane furrowed a brow, a look that made her look like a kid again, at least in Angela's eyes. "Dinner?"

The matriarch motioned to both of their wardrobe choices. "It must have been a nice place for you two to be all gussied up?"

Jane huffed and Maura smiled. "Gussied up, Ma? Really?"

Angela looked to Maura. "She ironed her shirt."

Maura and Jane glanced at one another. "I noticed."

"You know how long I've been trying to get her to iron her shirts before she went out? It makes all the difference. No man is going to think you'll be a good mother if you don't know how to iron a shirt." Angela turned toward her daughter, a rough chuckle emerging when she saw how embarrassed she looked, it only made her wince at the fresh patch work above her eyes.

Maura touched Angela's arm. "Is there any discomfort?"

"Yeah Ma." Frankie came over to where Maura was sitting. "Nothing hurts right?"

She smiled up at him. Frankie had always been the quiet son, he followed Jane around everywhere and now he was getting married. She shook her head at him while smiling and Frankie began to look more and more perplexed than concerned. "Nothing hurts dear."

He nodded once before looking over at Jane and motioning to their mother. "She's looking at me funny right?"

Jane craned over to look at her mother's expression while Maura quietly ruled out stroke. "Yes." The eldest detective confirmed with a small laugh. "They drug you, Ma?"

Angela chuckled again despite the pain. "I just love all of you—"

Tommy laughed. "Yeah she's high."

Maura pulled Angela's chart from the side of the bed and read it quickly. "No, no pain medications were administered." She looked back at Angela with a medical eye and then smiled. "Perhaps it's hormonal."

Jane made a face. "Can we not talk about my mother's hormones, Maura?"

"What?" She looked across the hospital bed at Jane and smiled at her body language curled protectively around her mother. She motioned to her. "Oxytocin is a particularly important hormone for women. It is a peptide produced in the brain that was first recognized for its role in the birth process, and also in nursing," Jane's face grew sour. "It's also called the cuddling hormone for a reason, Jane,"

Angela reached for Frankie's hand. "Where's Nina, Frankie?"

"Nina? Oh she went to the restroom before…" He paused and even Tommy had come to the same realization.

"You left her out there with Pop!?"

"Your father is here!?" Angela sat up in a furry.

"Take it easy, lay back down," Jane eased before watching her two brothers scramble out of the room to rescue her.

##

"So what, it's like a computer?" Frank Rizzoli leaned in to get a better look.

Nina nodded. "A hand held version."

Ron scratched the back of his head. "I just don't understand why you'd need to bring a computer everywhere with you." Frank huffed in agreement.

"Well…" Nina shrugged gently as she sat in between the two older men. Frankie's jacket hid the movement from either of them and it wasn't like they'd notice anyway, they were both too engulfed with her tablet to notice her. She really didn't mind seeing as how she had no idea what she would say to them given its absence. "Moments like this, where you find yourself in an unbelievably awkward situation because you had to pee."

"What if you want to play a CD?" Frank asked. "Things got no CD hole."

"Nina." Frankie came around the corner in a jog with Tommy in toe. She stood immediately and looked at him. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." He mouthed.

Now having the screen of the tablet which had been in Nina's hands away to distracted them both Ron and Frank Sr. looked up.

"How is she?" They both asked and then glared at each other. Well, Frank glared really, Ron just realized how close he had been sitting to him and stood to create distance.

"She's good." Tommy nodded with his hands on his hips as if he had put the stitches in himself. With a glance at his son still knocked out on the chair beside him he shook his head. "Gonna bring this little stinker in to see her."

"C'mon, she was asking about you." Frankie put an arm around Nina's shoulders as they began to walk.

"You're in so much trouble Mr. Rizzoli" She joked.

He smiled. "It's detective—Ow!" He grinned when Nina pinched his side. "I know." The two disappeared down the hall.

##

After the final exams came back negative and after protest from every Rizzoli present Angela insisted she was okay to leave and check out of the hospital. Frank had seemed put off by the notion that everyone just decided to continue on to Maura's house afterward. He left somewhere during the commotion of car arrangements, Maura didn't know exactly when but she could remember feeling just a little saddened by it when she had realized he wasn't there. Korsak and Kiki headed home as well with promises from the Sargent Detective to meet up in the morning to review a better quality of mooing image. Nina's tablet had lost its charge soon after zeroing in on a suspicious male lingering before and after two far away angles of the crash footage from tonight.

The footage from the Broadway accident hadn't been reviewed yet but all law enforcement present sat in the waiting room drank cup after cup of speculation, tossing ideas back and forth, reviewing the uncanny nature of a coincidence. They turned it over and over until Maura herself had actually fallen asleep sitting upright beside Jane.

Speculation without real antidotal evidence exhausted her and though she was sure they were on to something she couldn't really deal with unorganized manner of it all.

After that they were quick to relocate where unbelievably a second wind was found amongst the detective team. Angela retired to the guesthouse with Ron, TJ and Tommy took the guest bedroom near the green bathroom where Jane usually slept when she came over and Jane, Frankie, and Nina all stayed up doing Buddha knew what in the living room.

A call came in at seven in the morning to Maura's cell phone effectively waking her up and putting her in motion. The scene of the crime was cleared and as requested eight victims were being signed in to her lab. Since she hadn't anticipated this Kent would not be in to correctly receive them until ten that morning. Eight bodies meant eight families wanting closer, it meant at minimum eight hours of work given the delicate nature of what victimology would mean in this case which all meant she needed to get a move on it.

Maura Isles thought very little as she went through the motions of waking after a very restless week. She changed quietly into black capris and a form fitting top and threw her hair in a bun before making her way downstairs. She would change into her scrubs when she got in.

Frankie was lying on the couch on his stomach with a more petit Nina Holiday curled on the backs of his legs with a pillow on his lower back. She would have found it endearing if it didn't look so ridiculous. Jane sat upright with her head bent forward at an impossible angle, her black mane had been pulled back into a lose ponytail at some point and she was still dressed for their experiment albeit a tad more wrinkled than when she first arrived the night before.

Maura couldn't bring herself to wake her.

At that moment though the detective's head jerked softly thrusting Jane into fuzzy consciousness. Something was close to her and Frankie? What? Were they in danger? Where was she? Jane pinched her eyes shut firmly to allow her other senses to adjust. Lavender? Maura… Maura's living room.

Maura waited patiently once she realized Jane was beginning to wake.

"Maur.." Jane croaked softly when she woke fully and looked up at her friend with an adorable curiosity.

"I didn't mean to wake you." The ME apologized softly before she touched Jane's shoulder. "I've been called in." Jane shook her head sleepily before rustling up all the energy she had to stand. "No, Jane go back to sleep."

Jane shook her head again before sniffling some and looking around them. "I'll take you." She began to shuffle into the hall to get her shoes as if on autopilot.

Maura laughed breathily and followed her. "You are in no shape to drive."

Jane was going to say something but was interrupted by her own yawn. "Maura you saw what we saw right?" She yawned again and took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darker hallway. "Where are my boots?"

Maura grabbed Jane's left arm gently. "I will take back roads only, scouts honor." She raised her free hand and smiled at the skeptical look Jane wore.

"You were never a girl scout."

"I was too. Science Scouts."

"That's not a real thing."

Maura rubbed her arm gently. It was clear she would have to give Jane a specific job. "Stay, make sure Angela has everything she needs."

"I'm worrying." It was meant to be an internal thought but there was something about just waking that had always made Jane Rizzoli incredibly honest.

"I've realized." Maura watched her continue to figure herself out before moving her hand from Jane's arm to her flat stomach. Jane looked at it then her. "She may need help getting breakfast together for everyone."

The taller woman shifted. "…Alright." Maura moved to slip on her coat and grabbed her clutch from the night before not having the time to properly accessorize would probably kill her; Jane realized she probably didn't have to worry about traffic accidents. They neared the front door once Maura was ready to brace the cold. "Let me know if you find anything." Jane reached for the doorknob and opened it letting in a gust of icy morning air that actually made her shiver a little.

"I will." In the privacy of their position in relation to the door and line of sight from the living room Maura turned gently into Jane and pressed a small kiss off the side of her mouth near her chin. Jane blushed heavily. "Go back to sleep." Their eyes danced on the others though. "I mean it."

"Look who's being bossy now."

Maura tilted her head in amusement before turning and stepping down her front steps gracefully given the small puddles that had glossed over during the night. Jane sighed and watched her breath in front of her before scratching the back of her head and blushing further at her thoughts.

"Awunty Jane?" A tiny voice called behind her. Jane turned quickly to see TJ standing at the foot of the stairs squinting cutely. "Can I have some milk pwease?"

 **AN: Thank you for all your reviews! They really do make my day.**

 **KathleenDee**


	13. Chapter 13

"More cheese!"

Jane chuckled. "Yes chef!" She grabbed a handful of shredded cheddar and tossed it onto Ron's omelet. Jane nodded down at TJ before looking over at Ron apologetically. "I hope you like cheese."

The older man who was pouring Angela a cup of coffee at the island bar in Maura's kitchen shrugged and put his hand up. "Who am I to get a say? Kid's obviously going to turn the Robber into Per Se one day."

Angela smiled at her grandson. "TJ honey, come sit with me." She patted the stool next to her and the little boy ran over to begin every effort to climb it on his own. "I'm so happy we get to have breakfast together." She smiled down and then helped him with the final step. "Why don't you show grandma how to use a fork like we practiced?"

TJ had an attention span akin to his father, Angela smiled as he realized he hadn't even finished his own omelet before insisting to help his aunt make everyone's breakfast. He grabbed hold of a fork that was way too large to be meant for a child. (Maura didn't really own child size anything) and began to poke at the cut pieces of cold egg.

Jane added some onion to Ron's omelet and then completed it by folding it over and sliding it onto a plate for him. "Here you go, don't choke on it okay?"

"And chance another emergency room visit?" Ron set the coffee pot down on the heating pad and took the plate from Jane. He nodded in thanks "You sure there are egg in there?" they both watched a clump of oozing cheese drip from one yellow corner.

Jane only shrugged. What could she say? Anything TJ asked of her she did, it was like she was under his spell of cuteness. She surveyed the room quickly to ensure everyone was eating. Tommy, Frankie and Nina were seated at the formal dining room table huddled over their plates eating quickly. Nina had showered and after texting Maura about clothes had changed into a familiar grey skirt and one of Maura's flowy white bottom downs. Being the Momma's boy that he was Frankie had a few articles of clothing in the guest house that he and Tommy changed into and Jane had showered and changed into grey slacks and a deep purple v-neck shirt. Maura had left hours ago leaving Jane to attempt to get some rest again, it didn't work so she bundled TJ up and went to a small nearby grocery to get a few things for breakfast, and though her mind was presently on her family the case they would soon pick up was on the heels of every thought.

Angela must have noticed.

"What's that face for honey?" It was quiet enough for Ron to understand it was not an open forum and flew right over little TJ's head.

Jane slipped the omelet pan into the sink and turned on the hot water. "I should be asking you about your own face, Ma." She turned her back so she could set up the sink to tackle the greasier dishes, Maura would be able to tell if she just chucked them into the dishwasher and after sitting through a passive aggressive lecture on the molecular structure of grease and the diluted quality of commercial detergents Jane was not apt to make the same mistake again. "Did you put on that cream they gave you this morning?"

Angela watched her daughter begin the dishes. "Yes…" She paused when Jane simply nodded her head. "Did Maura say when she would be back? I needed to speak with her about something…"

"Oh yeah?" Jane scrubbed away at a crusted over piece of egg. "'Bout what?"

"Girl business."

Jane looked over her shoulder. "Girl business? Really Ma?"

Angela shrugged. "Well I had to pick something you've never been particularly inserted in."

Ron raised a brow mid chew and stood from his spot at the stool. "TJ, buddy, you want to see how many push ups daddy can do again?"

TJ grinned and put up his small hand. "Five!"

Ron chuckled. "Let's ask him."

Jane turned from the sink at her mother still wielding a scrubby brush in one hand, Angela wasn't sure if what she was reading was guilt or disappointment, she didn't need to ask about what though. Maura had already found a moment last night among the chaos to fill her in. "Sweetheart…"

"How come you didn't want to tell me about it?"

"I wanted to find the right time."

"That's…" Jane shrugged to evade the sinking feeling she was having; the one anyone would have when speaking on such things. "It's just a big thing to think about…." She paused. "Maura and I get into fights sometimes." An argument for the instability in their relationship she knew didn't exist. Ever since losing the baby, since Tasha, their thing, that thing, the change had really started to become unavoidable. Jane wanted more than anything to be upset about this, but something told her not to be and it was frustrating.

Angela smiled. "You girls love each other."

Jane turned back and resumed washing in the sink. "Yeah…"

What had she said now? Angela watched Jane's back as she continued to scrub at the egg pan. Behind her she could hear Frankie laughing, some movement and counting. A push up competition of sorts. The older woman got up from her seat at the bar and walked around to where her daughter stood doing dishes. She touched her back.

"I didn't want to add another thing to your shoulders." She said quietly. The running water and hooting and hollering behind them aided in the privacy of the moment. "Hm? With your brothers, all my junk, work—"

Jane let the pot slip out of her hand and into the sink loudly. "Ma, you're my mother, everything would stop—"

Angela saw she was getting upset; she nodded calmly and rubbed her daughter's back some as if she were telling her about a bad school day. "But it wouldn't. You and I both know that, sweetheart. It wouldn't and all these people." She motioned to the commotion behind them. "All these people will look to you, and I've made you from scratch." Jane rolled her eyes. " So I know what you will do and what you won't do, Janie. You won't want to disappoint them, and I can't ask you to."

Jane lowered her head and then looked at her mother after a measure of thought. "You ask Maura to do it?"

Angela smiled lightly. "Maura is special." Jane reached into the soapy sink water to retrieve the pot she had let go of. "She will make whatever it is okay."

"I'm your daughter."

Angela chuckled at the possessive comment and patted Jane on the shoulder. "Not anymore honey. It's time to share me, and not just all the annoying things about me, all the other stuff too."

Jane shook her head at the dried egg on the pan. "Yeah well… good." Angela chuckled again. "and I don't think you're annoying….all of the time." She paused and gave her mother a look. "You'd be a lot more annoying dead y'know?"

Angela grabbed hold of Jane's arm while smiling. "My beautiful girl."

"Ugh, Ma get off me!" Angela kissed her. "Ma!" Jane wriggled around in the surprisingly tight side hug Angela had her in until finally she knew the shorter woman wouldn't let go until she hugged her back. So with wet hands she wrapped her arms around her mother and felt an enormous sting of emotion touch her eyes. "Love you, Ma." She whipered into greying brown hair.

"Oh I love you too, honey."

They pulled away and Jane took a moment to examine her mother's face. "You gonna be okay?"

Angela nodded. "It's just a bump. Janie."

Her eldest nodded and let go over her fully. "For you." Jane nodded in thanks before returning to the dishes. "Maura got called in this mooring, eight people died in that crash." Angela came to her left to start drying for her.

"Eight? My Lord."

She knew that whatever had been really bothering Jane wasn't resolved. Angela had a knack for knowing when to really press, now wasn't the time.

##

Maura admired how long Jane's legs were briefly before fully stepping into the detectives den where all their desks were. She hadn't seen Jane since their moment of lightness this morning having been busy with eight autopsies. The detective had texted her asking if she had milk from an actual animal early that morning and then later to ask if it were okay to feed George Herman the weird smelly herbs she found in Maura's refrigerator (Spanish thyme)

She was glad she remembered to feed him.

The entire morning Maura's mind felt occupied with the happenings of the week, What an unusual occurrence of events she had mused. Homeostasis had finally bolted into action and if she weren't called in this morning Maura was sure she would be still sleeping. She glanced at her Cartier wrist watch, the one Jane surprised her with for her birthday last year, the one that supposedly was "blood proof" Maura wasn't so sure that was a thing but to be fair she had only haphazardly researched it and had yet to truly be exposed wrist deep in blood to really know.

It was 2:00PM in the afternoon.

A series of various greetings from Frankie and Korsak rang out at her entrance into the room clad in her white medical examiners lab coat.

Jane only looked up briefly from her spot sitting at her desk chair swiveled around to face the half empty case board in front of them "Hey Maur." She greeted last distractedly rubbing her chin.

Maura motioned to Jane and looked at Korsak who wasn't wearing a suit jacket and barely attempted to tie his tie. It was their day off after all. "Have you all eaten?" She looked around. "Nina?"

Frankie groaned from his spot sitting at Frost's old desk behind Jane. He reclined in the chair. It had always helped him think outside the box on particularly abstract cases. This certainly constituted as one. "She's annoyed with us." He chuckled after patting his stomach. "She's in BRIC, Janie broke the vending machine."

"I didn't break it." Jane mumbled into her knuckle. Her eyes stayed focused on the case board turning something over mentally.

Frankie stood from his seat. "Yeah yeah yeah." He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and paused. "Let's see what Nina wants." Nina was unlike any other woman he had met, she just oozed cool calm and collected, when she was even remotely annoyed or bothered by something it sent Frankie into high alert.

Apparently he could add fig newtons to the very short list of things that set her off.

Or maybe it was just the lack of sleep

Whichever he was sure Maura was on the right track with the food idea. Maura nodded and glanced at Jane and then Korsak who shrugged.

"Whatever you guys decide is good with me." He agreed with Jane's silence.

Maura nodded and followed Frankie down the small aisle to the glass enclosure with huge computer monitors. Nina was hunched over her laptop working on something in a small booth near the rare of the room. All you could see was a slender arm disappearing into a thick head of curls. Maura smiled and stepped forward as Frankie lingered in the doorway.

"I had never thought to put those two items together. You look lovely." Maura complimented.

Nina looked up and at her friend's voice. "I'll have to raid your closet more often." She rubbed gently at her eyes to adjust from looking at the computer screen all morning. "How's the Underworld?"

"Oh Hades is a realm invisible to the living, made solely for the dead. I wouldn't know." She joked casually.

Nina wrinkled her nose with amusement. Maura was definitely weird but she liked her more and more for it.

"We're thinking about getting lunch." Frankie tossed into the room from the entrance.

The two women looked at him. Nina narrowed her eyes. "Frankie." He was so cute when he dangled like this.

"Yeah?" He looked hopeful, took one step into the room even.

"Could you tell Jane I'm almost done here, we'll be ready in HD in a half hour or so." Maura chuckled at the middle Rizzoli's expression before he straightened and nodded. When he left Maura looked back at Nina and raised a brow. "What? I was dreaming about those stale fig newtons since last night. Boy's gotta know when he's gone too far."

"What happened?" She was afraid to ask.

Nina shook her head and looked back to her monitor. "Who knows, he and Jane got into it over the last bag of peanut m&m's next thing you know it's broken." She looked up at Maura. "This morning TJ made me a marshmallow omelet." Maura laughed. "I'm starving." She set a computer preference to let a buffering run without needing to press anything before standing. "Hoagies? I could kill one from Santirello's. It's not too far of a walk."

Maura could use the exercise so she agreed. It was still bitter outside; a new cold front apparently lay on the move ready to ruin any thoughts of an early spring. Maura didn't mind it though she rather liked the cold months, if it weren't for how easily her hair dried she'd wish it year round. The two gathered themselves before leaving, Maura slipped into her red winter coat and Nina a stylish black sporting jacket. There hadn't been snow on the ground for a few weeks now, and all forecasts suggested that it would be a warm and rainy end to winter, but maybe, just maybe they'd get one more snow.

"… and we're waiting on that as well. Lots of waiting."

"Has the chief okayed Jane coming back early?" Technically she was to come back Monday morning. It was Saturday.

"Who Jane Rizzoli?" Nina asked looking at Maura expectantly. "The same Jane Rizzoli who's not here?"

Maura nodded in understanding with a small laugh. "How long has she been sitting like that?"

Nina shrugged. "After the vending machine thing so what? An hour and a half?" Maura nodded. "I don't blame her though, there is something… weird about all of this."

"COD reveals the usual trauma…. There isn't anything forensically that I could conclude from the victims that could help." She felt odd saying it. "What about victimology?"

Nina nodded. "We're looking down that path too. Was there someone, some vehicle the same vehicle that maybe got away unscathed in each crash, we can't do that plate run until the image is clearer and we don't really have the right angles because that other camera was broken."

"Were the other camera's broken from the other lights?"

Nina became thoughtful. "I hadn't checked, getting the images were hard enough. They roll over one another in week cycles if there hasn't been a run light…" She shook her head. "Which has got to be impossible right? Broadway connects to Linden, where all those college drive around like maniacs."

Something probes the ME's mind. "Maniacs." She repeated to herself.

The got to Santirello's in no time. It was a beat cop's favorite deli for the quick sandwich before their tour and not even a little cold would stop the from coming out in droves both in uniform and out. In favt it was winter especially when the family run deli was most popular. Moma Santirello's Orzo soup was probably more valuable than gold on day's under thirty. The family only made a few steam kettles full and once they were gone, they were gone. It was the kind of place that always smelled good, with peeling stools and an express order window outside.

Today there were only a few officers outside. Stragglers from the big lunch rush at noon. Maura smiled at their familiar faces and they tipped their hats, one even winked after tripping over himself to open the door for them. Nina rolled her eyes and wondered if these boys knew who their favorites were at BPD. Maura smiled at them in thanks secretly wondering the same thing.

Rizzoli's were insanely loyal and loving, creatures. A little rough around the edges but they had big hearts.

Big territorial hearts.

Maura wondered then what Jane would have said then if she knew beat cops were winking at her.

Especially now

They had gone on a half an experimental date. She had to remind herself. It hardly counted as anything right? Maura busied her mind with the menu instead. The pathologist ordered the large orzo soup having fallen in love with it a few winters back when Jane brought her a cup in a thermos once. She had made her promise not to tell Angela which the ME found endearing. She ordered Kent a soup and sandwich meal knowing the big scot could really put it away and then nodded when she read something on the menu for Jane.

When she exposed the meatball sub ten minutes later Jane's eyes glazed over. She looked up at Maura from her seat at a round table in the BPD breakroom. "One event." She put a finger up and quickly unwrapped the sub and groaned softly at the globes of red sauce and cheese spilling out onto the sides. It was still hot even though she and Nina had stopped to chat with a lab tech in the drug unit. Maura took a small step back worrying about the integrity of her skirt and the red substance.

"I beg your pardon?" She chuckled watching Jane inhale her first bite and rolling her eyes back.

Jane chewed quickly. She began to look for a napkin but then decided it wasn't as important as the meal in front of her. "I'll go to one of your fancy events… I may even wear a dress for this… shit a leotard even." The room laughed. Jane looked up at her behind big cheeks and even bigger brown eyes. "Fanks." She tried.

Maura looked into the bag the sandwiches came and retrieved a few extra napkins. "Have you considered an unsub yet?"

Behind the noises of wax paper being removed and chewing Jane reached for a napkin and wiped at her mouth. "Maura we can't even get an image of a guy that's better than the quality of a cell phone." She took another large bite. Maura winced wondering if Jane was even burning herself. It probably didn't matter; Jane's eyes were ravenous, barely human.

"Two minutes!" Nina was counting down the end of her buffering.

Maura set aside the rest of the napkins near Jane. "Well I would consider pyromania or arson as a background."

Korsak nodded between chews. "I was thinking the same thing, Doc."

Jane was about to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand but caught Maura's frown. She reached for another napkin. "Why?" She noticed Maura's bag. "Where are you going?"

"My autopsies are complete, I am going home." She could think of one hundred honest to goodness things she needed to do at home. It was in fact her day off. Tomorrow she wanted to meditate and in the afternoon she wanted to go fencing before everyone came over for dinner. She looked to the room. "If he had stayed to watch the collisions at each intersection it may suggest he had some gain or an irrefutable need to see it through. Most destructive impulses do." Jane looked between her meatball sub and Maura's purse and then her sub again. "Call me later." She decided for her friend. There was very little that could pull Jane away from food, she was flattered to even be considered.

Jane nodded up at her. "Can you check in on Ma for me?"

Maura touched her shoulder. "Of course."

##

"Play it again."

Jane was still trying to get the red sauce from out from underneath her finger nail with the dull end of her pocket knife as she stood shoulders squared in the middle of BRIC. A large monitor had come to take up a large portion of the wall (a random budget increase last year), it played footage of the intersection of Utow and Bench days prior to the collision that put her own mother in the emergency room and killed eight. With her belly full and her focus regained Jane Rizzoli was ready to put this son of a bitch away. Nina's files had finally buffered, and Korsak had made a fresh pot of coffee.

It wouldn't take them long and she knew it.

On the better quality image Jane and the rest of the homicide team watched cars stop at the light and then start up the flow of traffic once again. They began and stopped and began and stopped. Jane scanned the screen until finally it had gone dark.

"One more time." Frankie nodded, Nina started the footage up again and three times after it. She leaned back in her chair and looked over at Jane.

"It was done electronically, Jane."

Jane nodded having come to the same conclusion. She looked down at her nails and clipped her pocket knife back just out of sight under the belt loop of her pants. "So whoever this has not only an understanding of electronics but also city systems." She shook her head. They had gathered a somewhat better shot of the back of the mysterious hooded man's head. "He's tall."

Korsak nodded and pointed with his pen to a smaller screen beside the large one in the center of the room. "See how he leans… at least five feet nine inches…"

Frankie shifted in his seat. "Also real comfortable around there."

Jane nodded with her hand at her brother. "Right Frankie, I caught that too."

"We know he's not African America." Nina nodded. "Got a bit of his hand here in this shot." She clicked around enlarging the photo.

Jane nodded before rubbing her chin. "He's thoughtful." She paced a moment before looking to her younger brother. "Let's take a ride."

Frankie nodded and got out of his seat. "What are you thinking?"

Korsak nodded at Jane. "She's thinking he didn't lean in any other footage, means he's probably comfortable because he lives nearby." Frankie nodded. "Check out the community off Bennch and 80th, blue collar and then white collar the more you go north. He's got a city job, so it won't be hard to find him once we have his name. " Korsak rolled his chair up to the computer system beside Nina. "If Doctor Isles is right then we're looking at an escalation pattern. Nina let's try to figure out who was fired in the last month for anyone working in transportation."

Nina nodded and got to work immediately, she smiled softly at the feathery kiss Frankie planted on the crown of her head as he grabbed his jacket off the back of her chair.

"Aww." Jane teased as she instinctively reached for her side and frowned when she realized she hadn't gotten her gun and badge back yet. She rubbed her palms together before shaking them out. "Come on lover boy let's go."

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Jane paused. "Nina do you think we have enough information to triangulate where he's gonna hit next." Nina nodded wordlessly as she typed furiously.

"Twenty employees on the list, Korsak." She waved to Jane. "You'll know when we know."

##

Jane fist pumped the air from behind a squad car eight hours later. She was watching a live feed from behind the lines and Frankie had just tackled Gregory Coppola who had made a stupid attempt to jump out of his apartment window. She nudged the gruff looking army type beside her who was handling the technology. "That's my baby brother." She nodded proudly.

"Ma'am." He agreed, or asked, or ignored. Jane wasn't sure. All she knew was that they had caught the bastard and for once (since she had been suspended) Frankie was going to get the credit he deserved. The tackle wasn't a bad look either for the Rizzoli name. She watched on with her hands on her hips as the speckled live feed from one of the SWAT team's terrorist units recorded the whole thing. She chuckled at her younger brother getting to his feet after cuffing Coppola and panting heavily. "Tubby." She chuckled to herself again. An overwhelming sense of rightness in that moment had her itching to get back to work.

Eighteen people had died and about the same injured in those crashes. Coppola had been fired last month because of an earlier altercation with his boss. Some nasty threats were there but no one really knew what the unhinged man had been going through. The hours leading up to the planned raid and arrest folded over bit after bit of unpleasantly stacked secrets, all the stuff that Jane knew lead to murder for most. His ex-wife removed visitation rights from his kids, he had started drinking again, his girlfriend had dumped him quite publically and to top it all off the technology he had created to actually inspire many traffic safety precautions was being touted off under someone else's name.

That man was Gilberto Maloni, a victim in the first crashes.

It wasn't enough; sadly he had come to learn what most adults already surrendered themselves to knowing. It didn't matter, none of it really mattered. It wouldn't stop his habits, it wouldn't make his kids love him, hell it wouldn't even rewrite the script by stamping his name on the new traffic lights engineered to call the police if there were an accident. They would always print Maloni, never Coppola. Instead of realizing this, returning to a sort state of enlightenment Coppola choose to imagine, to dream and to orchestrate his own. He chose to take control over something because he could not control himself, and though the reality of it was actually quite terrifying Jane Rizzoli was just happy to be one of the good guys.

"Relax. You're going to hurt yourself." Frankie could be heard over the transponder.

Jane nodded.

##

"Are you home?"

Jane tossed her keys onto the table along with her mail. "Just got in." She neared George Herman's tank and poked it gently. "Hey George." She frowned when he made what she supposed was excited turtle steps (which were just maybe a quarter of a second faster than normal turtle steps.) over to the side of the tank to look at her. "Do turtles get lonely?"

Maura shifted in her tub. A small mountain of silken bubbles had toppled over expose her bare knee. She was unwinding from a particularly lively book club meeting and almost didn't look at her phone on principal alone, but she hadn't spoken to Jane since lunch. There was a missed call from the detective around eight and she hadn't seen it until late and feared Jane had already gone to sleep. "They actually prefer to be alone, unlike mammals that get ill without companionship." She mused resting her head back. "Their quote introspective creatures."

Jane's smiled fell as she pulled her face away from the glass. "Well that lasted six seconds." She watched as George went back to what he had been doing, she couldn't quite tell what exactly that had been but he moved away with such a purpose. It had to be important. "He likes you better." Jane decided.

Maura hummed. "I feed him."

"You spoil him." Jane went into her kitchen and opened her refrigerator "Those herbs looked expensive." She pulled out a beer and a small tin of olives and hesitated before wrapping her free finger around the neck of the bottle of ketchup and closing the door with her foot.

"Are you jealous of our relationship?"

The homicide detective emptied her arms on the counter. "I'm just saying he needs to be raised with a little more discipline. You don't discipline him." Jane grabbed a bowl from her cupboard and emptied a healthy amount of olives into it before reaching for the ketchup. "Soon he'll be asking to go see the Boston Pops."

"And that could never happen." She shook her head.

"No tortoise of mine."

"Jane you remembered to feed him for one day."

Jane grinned. "Yeah and tomorrow night he goes back to his rich mom."

She slid her hand along her left leg. Was it too late to shave? Maura looked at her cell phone which had been put on speaker phone. "We could end all this you know?"

Jane licked the ketchup on her finger. "I'm a homicide detective Maura; I shouldn't have full custody of anything." She glanced at her plants which were somehow still alive. "Who keeps watering my plants?"

"Your mother."

Jane growled. "What is she doing in my apartment?" Maura glanced about the sides of the tub and sighed when she realized her razor was out of reach. She'd do it tomorrow. "What's wrong?" Jane popped a hand full of briny olives in her mouth and winced happily.

Maura furrowed a brow. "What are you eating at this hour?"

"Olives….and ketchup and…."

"And kale?"

"And Beer."

Maura shook her head and relaxed back into her tub. "Well no matter, tomorrow you'll have plenty of green to eat at dinner."

"She's seriously going through with this whole vegetarian lasagna thing?" Jane made a face. "Excuse me, baked salad." She corrected herself and spit out a pit into her hand.

Maura had helped Angela make ravioli dough before leaving for book club. It would be their usual Italian American feast. "She's even getting vegan cookies for dessert."

Jane groaned. "You are really trying not to see me tomorrow huh?" Maura laughed and Jane smiled. "Like at all."

"That's not true." Maura shrugged as a blush crept up her chest. "You know I take every chance I get."

Jane paused before sliding down to lean on her elbow beside George. "Dr. Isles, are you flirting with me?"

Maura laughed. She let her hand glide along the bubbly surface before looking at her phone, her cheeks red. "Oh Jane, I don't think I honestly know how to flirt with you."

Jane had a hand in her hair. "I'm pretty bad at it myself." She deepened her voice in jest. "What are you wearing?"

Maura burned red. "Nothing."

Jane hadn't been expecting an actual answer, but the one she got seared itself into her mind's imagination. "Damn Maura, c'mon."

"It's true."

The line went quiet. "…Really?" Jane finally asked, her pulse quickening wildly without her consent.

"I'm in the bath."

Jane glanced at George again before standing upright. She bit her lip and waited. A primal buzzing started somewhere within her and before she could really find out where and out it her brain had already made the conscious decision to see just how far she could push the other woman. It'd be funny to be able to make Maura squirm a little right? She was always bugging her anyway, wear this, eat that, kissing her and jumping on planes and leaving for weeks at a time…

"How long has it been Maur…." Jane picked up her beer cockily. "Since you…. enjoyed yourself—I mean your bath?"

Maura couldn't help her small laugh, it was sexy and sure. Two could play. "Paris."

"Ah?"

"Yes." Maura subconsciously brushed at her lips. "You're always so tense; you should take one every now and then… _enjoy it._ "

Jane smirked. "I don't know when I'd find the time…."

Maura let a hand touch her collarbone before shaking her head at herself with a smile and using both hands to rest on the sides of the tub as she leaned her head back. "You have to make time, Detective." she purred from the position with her eyes closed. Jane was standing in her kitchen biting the lip of her beer bottle and leaning against her stove now. There was something so incredibly sexy about the way Maura just said that, it provoked… everything. "Jane?" Maura drew out slowly after a moment, her voice returning to its neutrality. That's it? Not even a bit of a fight?

"I uh…" She narrowed her eyes at herself. "It's…"A faint beep caused her train of thought to collapse even further. "I'm getting another call. I'll talk to you later, Maura." Jane brought the phone away from her ear and quickly ended the call by picking up another. "What?"

"What that's how you answer the phone for your favorite brother?"

It was Tommy.

Jane put her beer down on the counter and rubbed at her brows. "Sorry—I—It's not important. Hey Tommy, what's up?"

"I know it's late, Janie. You gotta help me with somethin'."

 **AN: I really do love all the comments and questions coming in. Your reviews motivate me to write thoughtfully so thank you and keep it up!**


	14. Chapter 14

Jane lunged for the ball aggressively, her muscles burning as she jumped down into a squat and held the basketball to her chest and bent over to protect it. With one step outward and the harsh quack of her sneaker scraping the polished court floor she grunted and pushed her way.

Frankie backed off but only momentarily, he raced her to the half way point, sweat blurring his eyes as he marked on the defensive.

It had been hard to keep up the family tradition she and her father started all those years ago. They weren't middle class enough to afford one but God be damned Frank Rizzoli Sr was going to get his kids a basketball hoop like all the other houses on their block, and he did. So every Sunday before dinner he would take on all three of his children in a handicap match that always resulted in someone's knee being scraped and loads of laughter and rolling around. Soon Rizzoli & Sons took off, or slowed down, Jane never really knew, it caused her father to work more on the weekends, Tommy started hanging around a tough crow and would rather spend the Sunday at one of his friend's place until the porch lights came on and dinner was ready, so that left them. Jane and Frankie, and through the years it had changed, Jane had played her younger brother out of obligation (Once she made detective she hardly saw him, and as a beat cop fresh out of the Academy Frankie was six again: following her around and asking all sorts of questions) and then he too played her out of a sense of support after Hoyt, and then when they lost the house it was hard enough to find a place for their mother to live let alone play basketball. When Angela finally moved into the guest house and subsequently started hosting Sunday dinner at Maura's the two always found time to get a few beers in on the couch before everything was ready until one day Frankie called her up and invited her to play a game at a local youth center near where they used to go to High School in Dorchester. Jane hadn't anything better to do with Casey overseas and thus the tradition started anew.

"You know the problem with your game?" Jane asked as she dribbled the ball between her legs.

"My game?" Frankie took a moment to wipe the sweat from his face before returning into a defensive stance following her closely lifting his arms up and down to defeat any idea of advancing closer to the basket. "I'm up by eight, Janie." She hardly ever beat him yet she was playing today with a certain ruthlessness he hadn't seen before.

Jane took a long stride back and jumped the ball from mid court effortlessly hitting a three point shot. "Five baby boy." She exhaled proudly after wiping her face and grinning at Frankie's unmasked surprise. "Go get my ball."

Frankie laughed and went after the ball to check her and restart the battle. "What in the hell has gotten into you?"

Jane wiped her face free of sweat again while panting. "Nothing, just… needed a good work out." Frankie bounced the ball a couple times as he came back to center court. "And whooping your ass is doing the trick." She put her hands up for Frankie to toss her the ball and when he did she motioned for him to come closer. "C'mon."

Frankie chuckled as he got back into a defensive position. "Mmm I don't know, there's something else." He lunged for the ball but Jane was wise to his movements by now. "Tommy call you too?" Frankie went on the offensive and stomped forward into his sister successfully managing to knock her footing from under her and snatch the ball.

Jane laughed from her seat on the ground of the basketball court as Frankie began walking to the net nonchalantly taunting her as he made little effort to toss the ball into the net. "He called you too huh?"

Frankie grabbed the ball and sat it on his hip before walking back over and putting his hand out to help his sister get up. They often played way rougher than they should but neither ever complained, both always helped the other up. "Yeah, said he needed my help getting Lydia back, like I know how the hell to matchmake, and its Tommy no less." He checked the ball to Jane who in turn checked it back to him before entering her own defensive stance.

"Said the same to me."

Frankie took his time lining up his next shot in his mind as he dribbled the ball. "Think he was drinking?"

Jane shook her head. "Nah, I think after you guys got into that fight at the Robber it embarrassed him way too much y'know…" Tommy had really cleaned up his act in the last couple years, she was really proud of him.

"Yeah but I don't really like him hanging around Pop so much, when's he going to New York for that job?"

"Right after he sells the family business to secure our future, remember?"

They shot around in silence for a few more baskets. Frankie was still up by three. "We gonna help him out?" He finally asked.

Jane bounced the ball with her left hand and faked the shot before running around her brother and hitting a perfect layup. Her entire body tingled and she was having trouble breathing but it felt amazing. She forgot how physically demanding her job was until she was off for a literal four days. It felt nice to be moving again. Frankie ran after the rebound leaving a tiny trail of sweat on the ground behind him, Jane looked at her own grey BPD shirt drenched a deeper gray and nodded as she wiped her face in it. "Yeah," She agreed feeling good about it. "Yeah I think we should." Tommy had always marched to the rhythm of his own drum and seldom really asked them for advice in anything let alone dating. If he had called the both of them late like that it meant he was reaching out.

Frankie bounced the ball to her. "Yeah but what do you and I know about matchmaking? I mean we're not exactly good examples."

"You do remember that you're engaged right?"

"Yeah, and I'm still honestly surprised Nina said yes and not take a hike." He chuckled. "I won the lottery…and you're not really dating mater—"

"—Watch it, Francesco."

"Didn't Maura do it all last time anyway?"

"No." Jane huffed. "I helped too." Jane didn't want to talk about Maura, in fact her main goal was to find something she could do that wouldn't make her think about the ME at all until she saw her later that evening for dinner and came up with a cool collected way of telling her that she maybe overreacted by hanging up on her but it wasn't because she didn't like their…exchange. It was because she liked it too much? Jane needed something so monstrous in size, something that would take every ion of her insecurities out of her so she could do this right.

She also needed to figure out what that meant.

"Alright so how we gonna do it then?" Frankie winced. "Maybe you should get Ma involved?"

Jane tried for another three point jump shot but watched as the basketball circled the rim before falling out on the other side and bouncing away. She ran after it. "Isn't she involved in a little too much of our lives as it is?" She leaned over and caught the ball as it continued to try and roll. "He called us right? We got this." She threw the ball to Frankie from outside of the court before stepping in ready for the defensive. "We just gotta make sure Lydia's sticking around."

Frankie began to dribble the ball forward. "Well we know one thing, she does love TJ." He wiped some damp hair out of his face. "I can't see her really leaving him again."

Jane knew it. "Yeah." She raised her hands to block Frankie, "Can't blame her for being principled though." She swatted at the ball but Frankie jumped back.

"Is that exactly fair, Janie?"

"What? You want Nina to stick around if you start drinking yourself into oblivion?" She slapped the ball again. "C'mon!"

"Oh yeah? You wanna see game?" Frankie bent his knees further.

"Show me." Jane laughed at her brother and began losing her breath in the process. Frankie was passing the ball between his legs and wobbling his knees goofily. "Oh wow, they teach you that at Momma Boy Boot Camp?" She broke stance to jeer.

"Oh you like that huh?

"Mhm, s'good."

Frankie laughed. "Nah, they taught me this at Beat Your Old Sister's Ass At Basketball Yet Again Camp." He lunged forward and back quickly and then bolted when he caught Jane off a measure. She wasn't far behind him though as they raced toward the basket. "Arrgh!" Frankie grunted as Jane literally jumped onto his back.

Jane laughed as she hooked her arm around his sweaty shoulders. "I'm not letting you win!"

Frankie had already fatally leapt for the basket though which caused them both to hit the polished ground like an elephant's stomp. After a silent moment of shock the two erupted into a fit of sored laughter as they rolled around on the ground and the basketball bounced off court.

Jane held her stomach as her eyes watered and her right knee pulsed from the land. "Ow!" She glared behind her grin when Frankie shoved her playfully from his spot on his back beside her.

"You're such a sore loser!"

He was holding his face but Jane could just make out the curl of his smile.

##

"I don't understand it with you two!"

Maura put her fencing bag down in the doorway and was shocked to hear Angela's voice raised several octaves. Any increase in stress hormones after any trauma would prevent her from healing well. She rounded the corner of the small pillar that separated her hall from her living room with concern and paused at the sight before her.

Frankie and Jane stood in front of their mother with their backs to the front door like two wounded puppy. Frankie was holding a bag of her organic frozen peas to his face and Jane was leaning stubbornly on her left leg with her arms crossed. Both were dressed for sport with shirts stained with perspiration. The background played a comic scene of any other Sunday evening with the Rizzoli's: the amazing aroma of a Sunday gravy fitted with herbs and parmesan cheese flooded the room, there was some cheese already put out and the dining room table looked to be getting ready to be set. Maura noted George Herman's tank on the counter as well. He was often placed near the window. Jane must have picked him up after basketball. Usually she'd come home from fencing to Angela in her apron jigging to some music, already a glass of wine into the evening and they'd finish everything together. Now Angela's apron hung firmly in her hand like she was ready to wack any one of her adult children who interrupted her.

"Every single Sunday!"

Jane put up a finger. "Not last Sunday." Her finger dropped quickly when Angela glared at her.

"Jane Clementine—"

"Ma!"

"Don't _Ma_ me! What am I going to do with you two!?" Frankie lowered his head and mumbled something. "Francesco Rizzoli Junior I swear to God!"

"We're fine, Ma." He shook his head dripping defrost onto the wooden floor.

"You have a knot on your head the size of an avocado, Frankie!" She shook her apron. "Perché? Perché? You were such a good boy!"

"Ma, take it easy before you bust a stitch." Jane warned, once the Italian came out there was no turning back and her mother had literally just come home from a car accident the morning before,

"Every single thing I ask you two not to do, you do!" She pointed at Jane sternly. "You have to throw yourself off a cliff every single time you do anything!" She looked at Frankie "And you follow her! What is wrong with you two!?"

"Tommy did run over a priest…so, I kinda feel like maybe he should be here to—" Jane began.

"Leave your baby brother out of this!"

Maura stepped into the room to make her presence known and the three Rizzoli turned. "What's going on?"

"Oh thank God." Frankie muttered, at least now if they were killed there would be a witness. He wondered briefly when he and Nina should set up that benefits paperwork at the precinct.

Angela slapped her apron down onto a bar stool. "Look at them!"

Maura regarded her organic peas and Jane's fidgeting. "Are you hurt, Frankie?" She took a step toward them locking eyes with Jane for only a moment in silent greeting.

"I'm fine, Maura really, just a bump." He removed the bag of peas.

"I can see, here keep the ice on it."

Jane watched her mother storm back around the island and turn down some boiling water. "You um…need help Ma?" Jane asked. Her mother threw her hand up in the negative and Jane looked back to her brother. "See what you did?" She grinned.

Frankie let Maura poke at her face. "Me? You're the one who couldn't take loosing again."

"Jane is a very bruised loser." Maura nodded in agreement.

Jane looked at her incredulously. "No I'm not, and it's _sore_ Dr. Smartypants." She turned on her heel and winced. Luckily Maura's back was turned advising Frankie on what to do about his cheek or she probably would have noticed. "I'm going to shower." She announced before making her way upstairs as fast as she could. After a quick shower she changed into some loose jeans and a simple black shirt she found in the drawer of the guest bedroom where she usually slept if she stayed over. It had been laundered, and smelt like Maura's clothes.

Jane sat on the edge of the queen size bed in the guest room and slipped on some socks one foot at a time, she was careful to match her toes and heel with the helpful grey patches of material as she thought out the evening. She and Frankie had decided that after dinner (since Lydia had TJ tonight) they would chat with Tommy and sketch out how realistic his request was. With their father in town Jane wanted to make sure he wasn't pushing his way into yet another Rizzoli relationship especially one with the potential to bounce back like Tommy and Lydia's

Speaking of bouncing back the detective still hadn't come to a viable way of handling how she had handled herself the night before. She'd usually consult with her best friend, they'd laugh, well Maura would laugh at her but once that was over she'd entertain any solution probable that would have Jane come off in a better light, she always had her best interests in mind. Jane wondered how exactly they were to navigate this. All stereotypical conventions aside she didn't know how to separate the two, and was she even supposed to? Couldn't it be that maybe Maura was just still Maura, except now there was this space that Jane had always known she admired…

How did she tell her best friend it turned her on?

Jane exhaled shortly.

Jane knew she couldn't hide upstairs forever. So the decorated homicide detective put her damp hair into a ponytail and made her way down into the living room. If anything she had worked up an appetite. Downstairs she found Frankie setting the table and Maura in the kitchen with a flowery apron on stirring something on the stove. There was music on somewhere, a fun little melody of wind instruments, most likely Maura's choosing, and the room was pungent with the smell of a home cooked meal.

"Where's Ma?" Jane asked as she entered the kitchen. She glanced from Maura to her brother to Maura again.

"She's grabbing wine from the basement." Frankie nodded.

Maura paused and looked over at her friend before capping a lid on a pot. She couldn't help her smile. Jane looked almost… Sheepish. "Hello Jane."

Jane smiled a little too as she stepped further into the kitchen into their normal amount of separation. "Smells good in here. You need help with anything?"

"Well…" Maura began as she stirred another pot of something before putting the lid on it too, "Would you mind grating cheese?"

"Sure." Jane walked over to the counter near the stove and took position beside Maura as she took things off the heat and maneuvered others down to simmer. "She still seem pissed?" Jane picked up a wedge of crumbly parmesan and began grating it onto a small blue cutting board.

Maura tapped her wooden spoon on the edge of the pot before resting it down. "I think she knows you two also love messing with her."

"That's not a no." Jane pointed out.

"An astute observation." Maura nodded as she moved into the refrigerator and grabbed a few items to put a salad together. There was a bundle of microgreens at the market that looked so young and snappy she knew she had to buy the last container. "Hydroponics are fascinating don't you think?" She looked over at Jane and motioned to the micro greens. The detective raised an eyebrow as she worked. "Terrestrial plants may be grown with only their roots exposed to a mineral solution, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel…" She grew thoughtful.

Jane smirked. "You're a terrestrial plant."

Maura broke from her thoughts and chuckled as she closed the refrigerator. "It's probably thirty degrees outside and we are able to have the taste of spring right here in our own kitchen." She placed the small container beside Jane non-verbally adding the salad prep to her list. "It speaks wonders for seasonality and will most likely revolutionize the way we categorize the raw material needed for our food sources, but I do not believe there is any real negative offset to this change." She crossed her arms. "An argument could be said for the struggle consumers would have with adapting to a non-conventional means of agriculture—"

Jane paused her work and looked over at her. "No dirt?"

Maura nodded. "Correct, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's less nourishing or a bad thing, simply… different. An added element to what counts in global food systems."

Jane stopped grating cheese all together to look at her fully, her eyes narrowed some and Maura tilted her head to the side in silent question.

Their thing was hydroponics, and everything was alright.

"…Pretty cool, Maura."

The ME nodded; thankful that Jane understood. "I still think so." She had never been good at communicating with others, even into her adulthood there always seemed to be a bit of social anxiety the doctor had about being misunderstood. She never really felt that with Jane.

The detective looked over her friend's petite shoulder at her brother distractedly setting the table with one hand, the other pressed was into an actual ice pack at his cheek. Jane took a small step closer and spoke quietly. "I'm sorry I hung up on you." Their eyes warmed.

Maura smiled. "Don't be."

"Do you think that they could grow plants with beer?" She asked in the same hushed tone.

Maura laughed but then looked at her with a meaningful expression. "I think anything is possible, Jane."

##

Jane leaned back in her seat and laughed at Tommy's animated story about TJ climbing a tree and not being able to get down. Her cheeks were flushed from the couple glasses of red wine she had had and her stomach was threatening to burst small delicious nuggets of spicy Italian sausage and ricotta ravioli all over Maura's nice floors, and she could honestly care less.

Jane Rizzoli was happy.

Maura was tickled by the look of childish content on her friend's face beside her. The ME motioned her empty wine glass to her left where Jane was sitting somewhat slouched and patting her stomach. "More please."

Jane jerked forward to reach onto the table for the bottle of Sangiovese. "You took some fire rescue courses Tommy, you should be able to climb a tree." She brought the bottle over and refilled Maura's glass generously. The detective smirked. "I'm cutting you off after this before you start reciting the periodic table of elements _again_."

"You tease me but people actually pay to hear me speak." She grinned having only had two but it accompanied a particular weakness for Italian wine and the lovely company of the Rizzoli clan. The combination granted her a confidence she humbly kept in check during the work day. "Some people find it amusing."

Jane put the bottle down onto the table. "Some people find it annoying."

Nina had turned to reach for the bottle of wine next. "Endearing, definitely endearing."

"Thank you, Nina." Maura looked to her right where Nina sat. "Chemistry is endlessly fascinating, when will she understand that?"

Nina chuckled at the look on Jane's face. "Never?"

"I like chemistry!" Jane protested. "There's chemistry in baseball."

Maura had just finished taking a sip of her wine. "That's physics, Jane."

"Well I like physics too."

They laughed. Maura tossed her a smile before turning to Nina to say something Jane didn't catch, The raven haired woman looked across the table at her youngest brother and then her mother at the head. . "Ma, what's for dessert?"

Angela looked over at Tommy. "Thomas?"

"What?" He looked around the table and back to his mother. "Oh that was me this time?"

Everyone else at the table groaned in various degrees of politeness and familiarity. "Yeah that was you Tommy." Frankie shook his head.

"What are we going to eat now?" Jane asked in a tone that caused Maura to look at her.

"Jane you've had four five ounce portions—"

Jane looked at her right and motioned to herself. "I have to put on weight remember? Doctor's orders."

Maura raised a perfectly trimmed brow. "The doctor you saw three years ago?"

"Yes _that_ doctor, Maura." Jane shook her head before taking the napkin off her lap and wiping her mouth before flopping it on the table in a show of annoyance.

Frankie sighed and did the same and it took Tommy only a second to remember their old teenage tricks. He grinned at his brother and his sister. No matter how strained their relationships had been there was always the next prank on their mother or the next rouse to get out of doing something particularly boring. After being locked up he felt they grew increasingly annoyed at him, his inability to Rizzoli properly and all. Tommy knew he could never do what they did, it just wasn't what was as important to him, but sometime after TJ was born he realized that they were never really annoyed at him for existing, they just knew he was worth more than he presented himself as. it was something he knew he'd never be able to see without his sobriety.

"Well what do you want me to do about it huh? You two don't have kids." Tommy pointed his knife and his fork menacingly at his siblings. "You think I'm worrying about baklava with my son in a tree!?"

Angela crossed her arms. "That's right, you two, I don't see any other grandbabies taking up your time. You could have reminded him."

"We did." Jane and Frankie grunted in unison.

"Well it isn't that big of a deal is it?" Maura began. "I have some lovely cookie—" Jane's dining chair scraping abruptly interrupted her.

"Those." She pointed at her. "Are not cookies."

"You don't even know which I have, Jane."

Jane motioned to her brothers who began to get up as well. "Oh I know the ones. I couldn't…process them for a week, Maura." She motioned to her stomach which got a snicker out of Tommy.

"You ate the entire box, the serving size clearly says three—"

"Who can eat three cookies? Like even if they're horrible who has three cookies and thinks that's enough?"

"You're impossible." Maura grinned seeing that Jane would take this argument to the grave if she let her. "Practice some self-control." A shuffling of chairs and plates began to drown them out as everyone around them began clearing the table.

Jane raised a brow. "Self-control?" She picked up her empty plate and then reached for Maura's. "If I bring you one chocolate bon bon from Rosetta's Bakery—"

"I'll kill you and stage the scene forensically to make it look like an accident." Maura threatened as she stood so the two were now facing one another.

Jane smirked. "I knew it."

Maura grabbed her arm playfully; the one that wasn't currently holding their empty plates. "I'll give you my wallet. They close in an hour do you think you'll make it?"

"I don't need your wallet." Jane snorted. "Half dozen?""

Maura bit her lip cutely. "A full baker's dozen, Jane?"

"A full baker's dozen?" Jane took her arm back. "Maura you can't have that many in this house, remember what happened last time?" She watched as Maura took up their wine glasses and a few stray dishes and moved toward the kitchen where everyone else was helping to load the dishwasher. Jane chuckled and followed after her.

"I'll simply have to ration them this time, Jane—Oh Angela allow me, please I insist." She hurried around the island to gently but sternly move Jane's mother away from loading the dishwasher. "Nina and I can load this, when you lean forward like that the erythrocyte cells at your stitch will inflame the area which can be generally harmless but uncomfortable."

Angela looked over at Jane who shrugged. "Why can't you offer to help like this?"

"Because I don't even know how to say erythroatide right?"

Angela crossed her arms. "And?"

Jane pointed to herself. "Because I'm…" She paused trying to think of a good reason.

Angela chucked and handed Nina a plate. "Nina, honey did you get those fabrics I sent Frankie home with?"

Nina looked over at her Fiancé who was munching on a leftover piece of bread he saved from being tossed out. "Um… sorry Ma I forgot to uh…" He pushed the rest of the bread in his mouth and shrugged as his cheeks bulged: a sight that normally wouldn't be so attractive but with the addiction of the discolored patch of skin on his right cheek it was damn near extraterrestrial.

Nina laughed. "No, Momma Rizz, you'll have to show me." She handed Maura a plate. "I have to admit I haven't been as involved as I should be." She looked over at Frankie chewing as slowly as possible. "We were just talking about picking the day already. June seems nice, but it's so soon."

"Well don't you worry, we can tackle the whole thing together, sweetie."

Tommy coughed into his hand. "Mistake"

Angela glared. "What was that, Thomas?"

"Uh… nothing, Ma."

"This is our cue to leave." Jane nodded at her brothers who were quick to act in gathering their coat and shoes and beginning to slip them on. They knew Tommy hadn't gotten dessert earlier that day but decided it was the best opportunity for them to slip away and have a private chat with him. Frankie had to be in early tomorrow to help process more paperwork from his arrest, and Jane usually stayed over at Maura's on Sunday nights, it was just easier and seeing as tomorrow was her first official day back she wanted to be as close to work as possible.

The detective nodded in thanks to Frankie who had motioned her coat to her before resting it on the couch.

"C'mon Janie."

"I'm coming." Jane brought her plates over to where Maura was standing and rinsing off a small stack of dishes before placing them in the dishwasher. "You need anything from the store?"

"Is one open at this time?"

Jane shrugged. "I'll find one." She put the plates down. "Soymilk? For the bon bons?"

"Oh yes please, and agave, you know the one I like? Jane nodded. "Okay." Maura glanced over her shoulder at Angela and Nina chatting. "Are you staying over tonight?'

Jane nodded once. "That's not breaking a rule or anything right?"

Maura moved to adjust a plate in the wrack and then looked at her. "No, since we didn't finish the experiment I don't see why we would—"

"Janie!"

Jane and Maura looked over at Tommy and Frankie waiting for her dressed for the cold. "I'll be back." Jane hesitated and then put a hand on her shoulder. Maura got the message and smiled softly before Jane slipped her hand back and turned to leave. She had made it as far as the door with her boots and coat on until Maura called out to her.

"Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"Spinach for George?"

Jane nodded quickly. "Alright." She waved at her mother and Nina who were still cleaning off the table and bringing Maura dishes. "Nina if you lock yourself in the second floor bathroom she won't find you there."

Angela waved her off. "You kids drive safe!"

##

"It's just that, when I look at her with our kid, and think about not being in her life… I dunno guys it sucks." Tommy admitted as he followed his brother and sister down the dairy aisle at a nearby grocery store opened twenty four hours. He had two large pink pastry boxes tucked at his hip.

Jane stopped them in front of a unit and slid it open to grab a half gallon of soymilk. "Do you think she feels the same?" She paused to make sure it was the right one before closing the unit and looking over at Frankie who was reaching into another freezer for fudge pops, his arm already heavied by the wild mixed greens, spinach, and herbs for Jane's tortoise.

"Yeah." Frankie agreed. "It's one thing to realize you messed up and you work at change, it's a whole other thing to have that person admit they wanna forget that for the future." He turned to Tommy and lifted the box of fudge pops. "TJ like these?"

Tommy nodded. "So.. you guys think she may not take me back…" He slouched his shoulders in defeat. He had wanted to call his mother too for help (Lydia loved Angela's chocolate chip cookies after all) but something told him if he wanted honesty the best course would be Jane and Frankie, if anything they hadn't ever tried to sugarcoat life for him like it seemed everyone else did. He also doubted chocolate chip cookies could fix something like this…

Jane shook her head. "We're not saying that." They continued down the aisle.

"Yeah." Frankie nodded. "What made you ask us for help?"

Tommy shrugged. "Well you guys are y'know established?" He winced when Frankie tossed him a look that Jane missed. "I just figured that with TJ now in the picture it's about family…" He shrugged. "I mean despite all my crap I know you guys will always have my back, I'm terrible at these things! TJ needs her too. I just wanna do right by them both so I don't end up like Pop…"

Jane and Frankie exchanged looks. "Alright so you think maybe she might feel the same?" Frankie asked again.

Tommy scratched the back of his head. "I mean she said she was glad I wasn't drinking, that it was a really good thing."

"That it?" Frankie probed.

"And that she thinks I'm a good dad…"

Jane nodded. "You are, Tommy."

"That doesn't seem like enough y'know? I need a plan." He put his fist into his open palm and almost dropped their desserts in the process. "Like last time."

They rounded a corner. "Hold on." Jane approached a display of fresh fruit and grabbed a pint container of blueberries and raspberries. "I think that's it." She looked at what they had. "Nina or Ma say they needed anything?" She asked Frankie who shook his head no in response. "Alright let's go."

##

"He can't do that!" Jane exhaled heavily as she pressed her foot on the brake pedal at the next traffic light.

"Why not! That's a great idea." Frankie nodded from the back seat with all the groceries.

"Yeah sure he should do that but Lydia's gonna have him arrested." They all laughed. "Tommy no, you gotta come at it from an angle of maturity cause I know she ain't expecting it."

"Hey!"

Frankie chuckled. "Good point, Janie."

"Angle of maturity? Haven't I already done all that adult stuff? TJ, work, meetings—"

"What does she like to do?"

"Be a mom…um, she likes animals—"

"Right, that's right. Invite her to the zoo." Frankie sat forward in the back and leaned his elbows on Jane and Tommy's chair shoulders. "Tell her there is a project TJ has to do for daycare and say you need her help and the three of you go to the zoo."

Jane nodded as the light turned green. She took a cautious moment longer than usual to advance. "Yeah, that's perfect."

"TJ doesn't have daycare projects."

Frankie shook his head. "That's the point, Tommy."

Jane glanced over at her youngest brother. "He's right, it could be a family date, ask her how she feels at the end of it, tell her you wanna do more stuff together like this."

Tommy was quiet for a long time. "You guys have to come."

"What?" Frankie shook his head.

Tommy jumped in his seat. "We can make it a real family day, Ma, Maura, Nina… that way you guys can y'know watch TJ for a bit and I can talk to Lydia at the end—"

"Tommy I don't think that's really—" Jane began.

"—She'll be too worried about the little guy to really talk. If we're all there I think she'll see that I can support her and that she'll have a family unit too…Her Ma is drinking again and with Pop in town it's weird, but this would be fun, c'mon."

Jane shook her head slowly. "Tommy that's…"

Frankie nodded. "It's not a bad idea, Janie."

"Yeah but, you have to be able to handle things on your own y'know, we can't have the talk for you."

"You won't have to Janie, you guys just have to watch TJ for a little bit at the end, c'mon Janie, I love her."

The car grew silent as the eldest Rizzoli knew the whole thing banked on her approval. She glanced at her youngest brother again, he had really stepped up, and the comment about their father had surprised her. Was it possible that Tommy could see through his bullshit too? Was it that maybe Tommy was just a more compassionate person than she? If he was she was glad for it and she didn't know why. Tommy had also said he loved her, Jane hadn't remembered the last time Tommy had said that about any woman, well maybe Jessica Alba in High School but that didn't count really. Sure Lydia was…Lydia, but if her brother loved someone, wouldn't she want to do everything to see him happy? He deserved a little bit of happiness, they all did.

"Alright."

"Yes!" Tommy jumped in his seat causing Jane and Frankie to laugh.

"But! But—" Jane began putting up a finger to halt the celebrations.

"But what!? It's the perfect plan, I knew you guys would come up with something—"

"Hey listen you can't go messing this up again, you gotta stay clean." Frankie reminded.

"Yeah." Jane added. "That means less hanging out too, she has to see that you mean it, and even if then you have to realize that she might not feel the same anymore."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "You guys are such a buzz kill."

"Tommy."

"Alright alright, yeah I get it."

##

Jane stretched her legs out and put her feet up on the coffee table as she rinsed down her third bon bon with a tall glass of soymilk.

"I really don't know where you put all of this." Maura spoke as she came over with her mug of tea. She was dressed down in her silken pajamas, Jane in a worn baseball tee with dark blue sleeves with baggy brown sweat pants and socked feet. Maura sat on the couch beside her and regarded the open box of treats before them on the coffee table. As custom had it everyone got sent home with leftovers but the dessert always stayed here. The dining room overhead light had been turned off leaving the kitchen light and hall light to strain into the living room where they were, it felt sleepy and familiar. The air also smelt faintly of an organic citrus cleaning agent Maura used and the small lavender candle that was lit and sitting in the kitchen while the soft rutting of the dishwasher hummed along with the final dessert load.

Jane looked over at her best friend and realized that she had been looking forward to being alone with her all evening. "You had three as well." She let a small smile up. "I saw you." She added surely when it looked like Maura was going to protest.

"Yes well…" The ME brought her cup of tea to her mouth. "I didn't eat my weight in ravioli." She leaned her left shoulder into the couch to face Jane and relax.

"Well we all can't be over achievers, Maura. It's something I think you'll just have to live with." She took another drink from her soymilk.

Maura chuckled softly. "It's very difficult for me."

"I know." Jane leaned forward to put the glass of milk aside. "Can't believe you have me drinking this stuff." She turned some to face her. "Everything else was perfect though. Thank you… I mean I almost stopped to get something to eat before coming over here because I thought we were going to eat rabbit food but, I was pleasantly surprised."

Maura smiled. "Your mother has been letting me take more control over some things. I love learning."

"What was yours?"

"The ravioli." Jane raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Yes, from start to finish." Maura nodded proudly before taking another sip of her tea.

The cop whistled lowly. "They were so good, just like Ma's. I doubt anyone realized."

"Do you think so?"

She nodded. "Oh yeah." The room felt quiet and suddenly Jane blushed for no real reason. "How was um, fencing?"

"It went well." Maura nodded. "Basketball with Frankie? You were limping earlier."

Jane nodded. "Yeah we played pretty rough." She smiled a little at the look of concern on her friend's face. "I'm fine, Maur…"

"It has been a very eventful week, I'm sure you want to get some rest before tomorrow morning."

Jane nodded, the milk had really done the trick, she felt sleepy and was sure she looked it. "You alright?" She thought to ask though. "You seem tired too."

Maura rested her hot mug down on the coffee table and then adjusted the pillow under her arm. "I've been sleeping better; this week has just been heavy in terms of work and…" She paused.

"Nearly being shot at or in an orchestrated car accident?" Maura tiled her head forward and Jane thought for a moment more. Those being the obvious answers left her with only one other possibility. "Thinking about our thing?"

"Yes."

"We never really got to finish our experiment…" her feet came off of the coffee table and her elbow rested on the back of the couch as she adjusted herself to face Maura a little better, "You want to?"

Maura's features crinkled into a small smile. "We almost have to now."

Jane chuckled. "We don't but… I want to." She scratched the back of her head. "Y'know?"

"I do." Maura agreed. "I think that we should, Jane." Jane nodded. "Are you still…hesitant?"

"No… it's just… new, Maura. It's just new." She reached a hand out for her shoulder again like she had in the kitchen. On her run she had said a many truths to herself that she wasn't sure she was ready to say aloud but Jane Rizzoli was sure of how she felt. "I think most all I'm just… nervous." She shrugged and took her hand back. "I feel like I'm a teenager again." They laughed.

"The inexplicable anxiety about everything coupled with surge of hormonal imbalances? Yes." Maura laughed. "That seems most correct."

"I really had hoped I grew out of that years ago." She laughed at herself now. "And I honestly thought I'd be a bit smoother too."

"There is a first time for everything and sometimes even a second time for everything."

"Is this your first time—"

"Being a teenager?"

Jane nodded. Maura had always seemed to be adventurous, and from the little bit she told her about her wild streak in college Jane supposed she had the motive and opportunity, but the thought of Maura with another woman? Making plans and holding hands? Well that was something she realized she needed to know. "Yeah."

"Feeling as we just described yes…A first." She shied but tried not to. Maura wasn't ashamed to say it was just that Jane's eyes were exacted on her every movement, her interest had been peaked and Maura loved that look Jane wore whenever she focused on something like this, Her attention highlighted her strong cheek bones and mysterious eyes and would make even the most confident of villain's shy away from a lie.

"What about… any other…y'know lady interests?"

Maura chuckled. "Sure I've had crushes, and even experienced being—"

"Kissed?"

"Yes, that as well." Jane nodded thoughtfully. "But I cannot say I have ever felt so….adolescent about anything in my entire life, Jane." Nina had called it an enchantment, and Jane a stage of uncertainty and emotional sincerity that could only appear without wisdom and stem from the purest of places. Maura supposed it were a bit of both.

"I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by all this…" Jane now looked worried.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to change." Maura nodded. "Or rush into any consideration aside from what you want."

"What does it mean if I consider you?" Jane asked earnestly. "Like all the time?"

Maura wore a firm look of calculation. Jane wasn't just asking to ask, she wanted a real answer. "Research doesn't say much on the matter…If I hadn't kissed you—"

"I'd still consider you." Jane looked at her now. "You're my best friend, Maura. I think about you all the time." There was no use lying to a woman who already knew her so well.

"You're my best friend too, Jane." Maura's smile faltered just a little but returned when she found her words. "I have an unconditional positive regard for you, I wouldn't place any bets on that going anywhere."

"See?" She shook her finger. "Now that was smooth."

Maura chuckled and leaned her elbow on the back of the couch and regarded Jane with a small smile. "Have you ever had lady interests, Jane Rizzoli?"

Jane shook her head no. "Not…like you." She had trouble maintaining eye contact now.

Maura tilted her head slightly to find her gaze before gently pushing at Jane's knee. "That's really sweet." Her grin was teasing. Jane hadn't really answered the question and Maura was intrigued to know more but it could wait. She could be patient.

The detective rolled her eyes. "Yeah whatever." Maura chuckled and Jane pointed at her. "Do not repeat that, Maura."

"I'll only tell my journal, promise."

"And Bass?" Jane reached forward for her glass of milk.

"And Bass… oh and George."

"And Jo Friday's family?"

Maura smiled. "Possibly."

"Great." Jane took a sip of milk before shaking her head. "Tasha know I'm coming to New York with you?" She was ready to talk about something else.

She nodded and reached for her tea as well. "I called her today, this morning. She is excited." Maura took a sip. "I've also made dinner reservations for the three of us at this lovely Italian restaurant on the upper east side, the sommelier is the friend who managed to hold the case of wine for me."

"How exactly are you going to bring a case of wine back from New York?"

"We'll drive back." She nodded simply.

"Don't you mean I'll be driving and you'll be forcing me to listen to Tori Amos while shoe shopping and not helping me navigate at all?"

"Isn't that what I said?" Maura shook her head at Jane's expression. "Anyway I know you haven't purchased your flight back yet. It'll be fun."

"I have to book my ticket."

"Well you'll have to do that soon Jane. I need to be there in three weeks for this conference."

"Three weeks huh?" Maura nodded. "Alright I'll have to talk to HR after my RTD tomorrow…"

"RTD?"

"My Return to Duty Interview." Jane explained the process before pausing. "I'll get my gun and badge back." She had instinctively gone to put them in the front hall drawer lock box at Maura's at least twice this weekend to find her hip and the box both symbolically empty.

Maura couldn't help but noticed Jane's energy almost giddy at the idea of getting to go back to work. "You really have missed it."

Jane looked at her and nodded once before looking away. "Helping Frankie with this case, it felt…" She rolled the glass of soymilk in her hands trying to figure out just what she meant to say. "I would say it felt right y'know but that's not it…It was more than that." She looked over at Maura then and their eyes met. "It's what I'm supposed to do."

Maura let her cup of tea rest gently on her leg. "Do you think you will feel the same about teaching?"

Jane shrugged gently. "How do you feel about?"

"You lecturing?"

"No, at BCU, y'know minus recent events."

Maura gave it a moment of introspection before answering. "I enjoy sharing what I have learned, eager minds are… inspiring in and of themselves. It reminds me of why I do what I do. It's balancing."

"Didn't think you needed reminding too."

Maura shrugged gently. "Yes well with Hope coming into the picture years ago it made me wonder what kind of physician I would be if I hadn't gone into pathology."

"To live people?"

Maura smirked. "Yes."

"What'd you come up with?"

"Well after being invited back to lecture at BCU and meditation I came to my answer." She paused and gave Jane a knowing look. "What do you think it was?"

"You wanted to be a pathologist still." Maura nodded with a little smile. "That one day in Virginia was so fun and… different, but one day is different from a whole career shift. I'm a damn good detective, and I like it, but I'm missing so much…"

"Do you think this part time contracting would lead to something more permanent?"

"I dunno." Jane took a final sip of her beverage leaving the glass a filmy off white. She leaned over to place the empty cup on the coffee table before resuming her previous position facing Maura.. "Being away from everyone when I do leave will already be hard…Boston is my home. Kinda defeats the purpose y'know?"

Maura nodded at what was unsaid. "I think you owe it to yourself to try, Jane." There were many things Maura Isles knew and knew well, and even the things she did not know well she knew of. The feelings she had for her best friend rivaled any close relationship she had ever had for another living thing, and though she knew that life as it was is designed to continue on, she also knew she was unaware of what that would look like without Jane Rizzoli. An even greater wisdom yet was the knowledge she had that she wanted only the very best for the woman sitting beside her, and Maura would never hold that over Jane for her own sake. It was uncomfortable to say the least but she leaned in regardless.

Jane groaned. "Well if the commute doesn't kill me being called a "Fed" really will."

"Have they started at work yet?"

"Nope, but tomorrow is a new day."

"Often, teasing is done in a spirit of affection and playfulness, and teasers attempt to convey these intentions through subtle nonverbal cues."

"Maybe."

"Once you have syllabi will you share it with me? I can help you create course work; it's really actually quite fun."

Jane chuckled as she watched Maura take another sip of her tea. "Do my homework for me and I'll buy you all the chocolate Bon Bons you want, Dr. Isles."

"Those are very attractive terms, Detective Rizzoli."

They stayed up chatting until it grew late. Jane frowned at Maura's stifled yawn and stood before putting out her hand for the sleepy woman. "C'mon Maur. I'll lock up down here." Maura accepted her hand and smiled under heavy eyelids as Jane held it a moment longer than necessary.

"May I hug you goodnight?" The shorter woman asked, eyes twinkling.

Jane knew this look, it was the look Maura gave her while asking her to do something she knew she couldn't say no to, which was most anything when the detective gave It some real thought,…

"Yeah." Jane nodded before lifting her arms some and feeling her stomach flutter and chest tighten simultaneously as Maura slipped her hands around her slender midsection and pull her close. Jane didn't know hugs could be so…intimate. She had hugged Maura before, hell she had hugged other woman before too, but there was something about them right then wrapped around one another in Maura's living room that made Jane's heart ache. She didn't really want to let go, not really. Maura must have felt it too because their arms moved almost instantly to slide up the other's back firmly and wrap fingers around bases of necks and use palms to pull the other closer. Maura made a small noise akin to a hum before she exhaled unevenly into Jane's shoulder.

The doctor hadn't expected this at all. The idea of Jane being in Virginia and her in Boston or even France made her want to be closer to the taller woman, and a hug, seemed the most innocent. The wash of oxytocin she anticipated and had even braced herself for, but the pool of adrenaline and vasopressin left her almost weak and fully alert of how strong Jane's upper body felt.

Jane could feel Maura's heart beating in her own chest, it was something that made her painfully aware of their mortality and that wasn't something she wanted to think about right now so the detective tightened her embrace protectively to ward off the scary certainties of life. This caused Maura to press herself closer so the fronts of their bodies touched from knee to collar.

They held that position for a long time.

"Good night, Jane." Maura finally whispered; her voice honey dripping all over the side of Jane's thoughts and making them stick together with a temporary frustration. Maura touched the detective's cheek affectionately and watched as Jane pulled away enough to look at her with warm dilated pupils and a small smile. "Tomorrow is another day." She reminded which made Jane's smile widen crookedly.

"Do I get one of these tomorrow night too?" She joked trying to hide the emotion that made her voice raspy.

"Will you stay over tomorrow night as well?" There was no real reason for her to, but Maura found herself asking anyway, not caring how it exposed her.

Jane recognized this. "I have to ask my parents first…" She teased the situation to lighten the bundle of nerves still running around her chest knocking things over and causing a general nuisance.

"I don't think teenage Jane would have thought to ask for permission."

Jane grinned. "I'd probably just sneak out to see you." Maura was smiling now too. "But I'd probably just end up coming back home because you'd have some chemistry test or something." She laughed a little at the mental image. "You'd totally turn me away."

"My grades were very important to me." They let go of one another slowly. "Will you?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah. I'll come over."

 **AN: Review!**


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Special thanks to all those reviewers without accounts who have been so lovely and anonymous. I can't say thank you via PM so I'd like to take a moment now. Enjoy the chapter!**

Maura adjusted her cashmere scarf to protect her neck from the stinging air as she watched Jane and Vince talking about the crime scene at a distance. The seasoned Sargent Detective's shoulders remained wide and open to whatever Jane was saying but with a clear air of wisdom and authority. Jane's hands moved as she spoke, her weight pivoting from foot to foot every now and then and her sharp chin angled downward somewhat. She respectfully disagreed.

Maura would never admit to being distracted on the job, she was hardly able to admit it to herself, but once her role was complete and the initial field information was passed on to the right people she sometimes occasionally maybe indulged in watching the way Jane moved about a world she had only recently in knowing the detective become familiar with. In befriending Jane Maura was able to ask all the questions she wanted, input her own traditionally quieted opinions, and feel some true responsibility for the investigation and not just "poking at the dead for clues" as one narcotics detective had so delicately put it.

it wasn't a distraction, it was more of an… An appreciation.

Besides, human behavior especially nonverbal body language was always something that intrigued her, counting for more than half of their species communication yet so often overlooked Maura frequently wondered what the world would be like without sound, how would they manage without words? She had come to the conclusion some time ago that somehow Jane Rizzoli would get on with her work just fine which made for rather curious observations.

It was a Thursday evening, cold and a bit windy. The weather forecast had showed no signs of letting up toward the end of the month and Maura though incredibly patient when it came to certain things had exhausted her winter wardrobe and was looking forward to wearing dresses again whenever possible.

The week had proven to be pretty quiet in comparison to the two weeks after her trip. From what Jane had shared so had homicide, Maura was looking forward to capping the week out without much incident so she could spend the weekend working on her writing or preparing for New York panel without needing to play catch up with the ME's office. That wasn't looking likely though with the call they got in around five thirty today at Roonie Park. A woman in her early forties had been found with multiple stab wounds to the chest, thigh and groin, the assault was inflicted post-mortem which seemed strange given the public nature of the attack.

Judging by her stance Jane was most likely thinking the same thing.

"Dr. Isles?"

Maura turned and regarded one of their newest crime scene techs Morgan. "Yes." She blinked.

"Should we begin intake?" He still seemed uneasy around the newly perished.

Maura nodded and motioned to Vince and Jane. "When the two lead detectives allow us we can proceed."

"But… isn't the longer she's out here the more likely evidence will be lost?"

Maura nodded. "That is true." A tad squeamish but scientifically minded, she liked him. If he lasted the year she was sure he would stay. "There are many things one can gather from an initial intake. Sargent Detective Korsak and Detective Rizzoli like to step away and then approach the victim again with multiple theories. Once we begin our intake the exact manner in which our victim was left is lost and that information could be paramount. There is only so much crime scene photos can capture." It was one of she and Jane's first casual disagreements when they began working together, Like Morgan Maura wanted to save the evidence believing it to be the only real thing to stand up In a court of law and she hadn't been wrong but there was more to a crime scene than the body. Jane had placed her beer bottle down on the booth they shared at the Robber and asked her to take a photo of it. When Maura had pulled out her cell phone and the photo was captured Jane took the beer away and asked her the significance of the level of fluid in the bottle. The ME had thought long and hard about it but was surprised she couldn't really tell how full the bottle was. She remembered Jane savoring a small grin as she took another long sip before explain that the detective's job was to get on all fours and look through the bottle, to be the criminal who put it there, maybe it had just been emptied enough to look through and see someone across the bar without drawing attention to themselves, maybe that person was their victim, suddenly they had opportunity. Maura beamed at the notion, what an interesting angle of inspection! She had vowed then to work with whatever detective was on her assigned autopsies from then on to get every angle possible and to learn a bit of patience so they could work together to solve the case.

For her example she used a window with curtains and not a bottle of beer, Morgan seemed to pick up on it just as well though. He nodded slowly.

"We do not want to jeopardize that for haste don't you agree? Molecularly speaking evidence has a window, their job does not."

"That's interesting. It… makes me look at things a little differently." He nodded faster this time and then looked over at Jane and Korsak.

"I'm glad." Maura followed his glance. "They shouldn't be much longer."

Both Jane and Vince were nodding as they spoke in agreement of the correct course of actions.

"…Heard she shot herself to save another cop." He had heard rumors of his employer and the detective's friendship, but he doubted Dr. Isles would let him ask her to sign his limited addition copy of his favorite comic book _Bostonia_. The author Chip Edmondson had eluded in an interview recently that the muse for his vigilante was taken from Boston PD itself, and Morgan almost chocked on an apple he was eating when Detective Rizzoli rounded the corner with a case file for Dr. Isles while reading the interview on his lunch break.

Never mind it being completely unprofessional of him to ask, the other lab techs also seemed a little scared of her so he kept his theories to himself.

Maura nodded once. "They are both quite remarkable at what they do." She looked over his shoulder at the rest of her team surveying the area. "Would you mind combing over the parks two entrances again? It could be possible blood was left when the offender escaped." Morgan darted off leaving the Chief Medical Examiner to her thoughts.

What was truly remarkable was the amount of restful sleep she had been getting this week. The disorientation of travel had finally worn off along with the general excitement of the precious week's events. She received a call from Professor Dooley to meet over lunch soon about the next semester at BCU, Angela was back in her spirits and her book club had finally picked something Maura was excited to read. Things seemed to be getting back to normal.

Most things.

She and Jane remained changed, alone the kisses on the cheek continued with the other's departures, the subtle lifts in lips when the other walked into a room as if they shared a valuable secret. They hadn't rescheduled their experiment yet, but Jane had stayed over every night that week and they had held one another goodnight each time. Maura knew it could no longer be called a hug, hugs generally lasted three seconds. Cross-cultural studies dating back to 1911 had shown that people tend to operate in three second bursts. Goodbye waves, musical phrases, and infants' bouts of babbling and gesturing all last about three seconds. Many basic physiological events, such as relaxed breathing and certain nervous system functions do too. Several other species of mammals and birds follow the same general rule in their body-movement patterns.

She knew this because she had done her research.

Maura wanted to make sure she was classifying the change correctly.

When she thought about their arm wrapped around one another and the softness of Jane's rough veneer the doctor flushed, so to save from having to explain it she instead tried to focus on her surroundings…

Jane's conversation finished and the tall woman looked over the crime scene lit park to find Maura before starting toward her. She had a beanie on with a low ponytail trailing behind her and was wearing her dark woolen slacks and BPD windbreaker with her badge dangling around her neck and her gun at her hip. She looked especially determined to close the space between them.

"Hey, you get anything else?"

Maura adjusted her scarf again as a particular breeze brushed passed them. "It may be possible to pull something from the nails but I can't tell in this light if they are just poorly maintained or may yield some other biological residue."

"Biological residue like DNA?"

She nodded. "It's possible." Jane nodded to herself. "The stabbing wounds are consistent with a rage attack, in order to get that deeply under the layers of muscle of the thigh you would have to exhibit an almost inhuman amount of force."

"So it was a bear attack?"

"I said almost, and the wounds are inconsistent with the canines of any animal capable of such force."

Jane looked down at the tarp covered Jessica Hanover. " Someone was pissed enough to kill her and then stab her." She looked around the area and then shook her head. "Wonder if this park means something to them." She looked back over to Maura. "Unsub had to be someone she knew and trusted enough." She checked her watch. "Or someone she may be acquainted with…it wasn't too late when they entered the park together… You're sure this is where she died?"

Maura nodded. "Of course I cannot say a hundred percent—"

Jane bent to examine the area around the body a little more. "Well in the interest of not freezing my arms off I'll settle for seventy three percent, Maura."

"I'll know more once we get her to the lab," Maura shook her head with a small smile. " and I told you to bring a real coat today."

Jane stood and raised a brow as she peeled her crime scene gloves off and stuffed her hands into the front pockets of her windbreaker for warmth. "Was this before or after I had coffee this morning?"

Maura looked at her curiously. "Do you truly wait just so you don't have to be responsible for the things I say prior to your coffee?"

"Sometimes."

She shook her head and motioned to the victim. "I can have a report within a few hours."

Jane nodded in thanks. "I need the COD, Maura."

The Chief Medical Examiner slipped her own hands into her fashionable coat pockets and tilted her head in a silent challenge. "I can have a report within a few hours."

Jane grinned to herself as they wordlessly agreed to begin walking back to the group Korsak was leading. Their boots crunched against the small bits of gravel on the park's path as they fell into a momentary silence. "…Probably gonna be a late night for me." The detective looked over at her friend. "You have my permission to finish that documentary."

"Really? You don't want to see the ending?"

"Maura I didn't want to see the beginning or the middle." Jane deadpanned.

Maura remained amused at her honesty having already known this. A medical documentary on grave robbing in the early days of surgery was incredibly interesting to the ME and Jane sat through it still enough. "You can admit to liking something that isn't baseball." She reminded. "And I will leave the kitchen light on for you."

Jane nodded at the subtle belief firmed into fact that she was staying over again. She liked the idea that Maura wanted her close by. Plus the detective had been itching for an opportunity to bring up taking Maura out again, she was sure Maura believed she had forgotten, but Jane hadn't. How could she when every night since Sunday she had talked herself out of turning her head slightly through their embrace and kissing her best friend goodnight? Friends didn't do that, but people who had been on a full proper date did, and she couldn't take Maura on one of those until they had talked about it, and the questionnaire, and those results. It could seem silly she knew, but procedure was important to Maura and Jane wanted to respect that. More importantly she wanted Maura to know that she wanted to take her time, treat her right. The weight of that potential responsibility had hit her last night; arms wrapped around the shorter woman's shoulders, nose pushed gently into her hair.

Jane Rizzoli had always considered herself protective of the people she cared about so that weight sat on Jane's chest all night. She would already put out the world for a tear in Maura's eye, but as… more? There was probably a whole list of responsibilities she never considered and though it scared her Jane really wanted to know what it was that Maura needed that she couldn't give her as a best friend.

It obviously didn't need to come from a man.

Right?

"You wanna watch the weirdest stuff." Jane continued.

"All you want to do is watch sports. Surely there must be something else you'd enjoy."

Jane chuckled. "We deal with the worst parts of people Maur, sometimes sports are all I can watch."

Maura looked at her. "I suppose I never tire of processing new information, analyzing it, constructing realm in which it could be applicable to me or our work." She blinked as if realizing for the first time she had hazel eyes. "I wonder why that is."

Jane chuckled. "Easy, you're a cyborg."

"A fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body?" She shook her head missing the look Jane was giving her. "I assure you Jane, I am anything but hypothetical."

The detective only smiled at her while shaking her head. "Goof."

They approached Korsak and the officer who had responded to the call Joe Finch. He was a tall man with boyish features and a strong Boston accent. Jane didn't like him much but he was good at his job and never really got in her way… Well not exactly anyway.

"Thanks Joe." Korsak nodded.

The officer smiled. "Yeah Vince, anytime. I'll make sure our boys guard the area nights through." He looked over at Maura. "Dr. Isles, you could always y'know stick around." There was a chivalrous yet contradictive suggestion to his tone.

Maura smiled politely still. "Oh, that would be interesting. I'm afraid I have an autopsy to prepare, maybe next time?"

"Hope so, Doc."

Jane rolled her eyes as Joe tipped his policeman's hat before walking off. "Isn't he married?"

Vince laughed. "Yeah, if you call living in a different state from your wife married." He regarded Maura. "Was there anything else, Maura?"

"I was filling Jane in on the possibility of DNA evidence under the nailbed but I would need to confirm."

"Hard to imagine someone fighting back after they were already dead." He thought aloud.

Jane nodded and looked around them. "Also hard to imagine no one saw anything." The park was not large by any means. Someone had to notice them enter it. "Had to be late evening right? Who's out here then?"

"School kids most likely, a parent called it in."

"Damn." The parents would never get them involved.

"Luckily the weather was cold enough for the tissue damage to slow the decaying process. I can get a better gauge of the lividity when I do a full autopsy."

Vince nodded and looked over at Jane. "Let's head back."

"Alright, gimmie a sec." Jane nodded and waited for Korsak to start walking away before turning to Maura. "You let me know when you're leaving?"

She smiled. "Are you going to walk me to my car?"

"Sure."

"My hero." She teased; Jane let up a small laugh and rolled her eyes as she turned to catch up to Korsak. Maura watched her leave and chuckled a little when Jane glanced over her shoulder at her. She could be very sweet when she wanted to be, it made her blush a little when she realized it was because of how she felt for her. Like a teenager? Wasn't that what they agreed it felt like? The ME shook her head and turned to her team to begin the tedious task of orchestrating respectful efficiency when removing a murder victim from their own crime scene.

##

By the time Jane Rizzoli got into her car to leave work the sky were a thick dark blue battered with dark greys. purples, and pinks. A great big beautiful mess.

She yawned as she slipped her seatbelt on and tucked the chest strap behind her (An old beat cop habit to be able to get out of the patrol car faster) before pulling out her cell phone and shooting Maura a quick text. The ME would be worried when she woke up and Jane wasn't there. She tried to rationalize going over to Maura's at this hour and couldn't. She needed a shower desperately and knew that there was a real possibility that Maura could probably still be asleep. She wouldn't want to wake her. So Jane opted for a simple explanation and left her phone in her lap to turn on the radio so she wouldn't fall asleep behind the wheel. The detective drove on silently into the morning thinking about the case and then her family.

Tommy had been texting she and Frankie about the plans for the zoo this weekend. Jane just hoped she didn't get called in for anything she really was looking forward to spending the day with everyone.

She stopped at a light and was surprised to feel her phone buzzing wildly in her lap. The Boston native smiled a little when she saw who it was calling and brought the device to her ear quickly. She was only a block or so away from her place, if stopped she'd just say it was official police business. "Morning."

"Or is it goodnight?" Maura sounded wide awake

Jane smiled. "Who knows."

"It's six in the morning, Jane." Jane checked the time on her watch.

"The glamourous life of a Boston Homicide Detective." She let herself joke if only to ease whatever worry she recognized in Maura's tone. "Did you get my message?"

"I did. Has something developed or is this just a late one?" She was standing in her kitchen in her robe sipping some warm water to activate her metabolism for the day. Maura knew Jane wouldn't be coming over like they planned when she woke after falling asleep in her book on the couch to Angela urging her to sleep in her bed. The mother of three had stopped in to borrow a particular tea, it had been midnight. No text messages or calls meant Jane was fully engrossed in what she was doing and had lost track of time. If something were seriously the matter Angela wouldn't have been humming to herself while she made tea and Kennedy their ops dispatch would have sent her a notification. After Jane jumping off that bridge her case blinders admittedly continued to hurt Maura's feelings in a way she didn't understand, but as time went on she realized that sometimes Jane's only focus, care, or concern was her work.

It's what made her the amazing cop that she was and she had learned to accept it as a part of the whole.

Jane turned down her street with one hand on the steering wheel and shrugged. "Just a late one. I'm gonna crash for a bit, shower, eat, and come back in around ten."

"Will you come see me when you arrive? I got some test results from the Hanover autopsy I think you would be interested in." She paused. "Oh, I could just give them to Vince when I get in."

Jane pulled into her usual spot and yawned into the back of her head before slipping the car into park and leaning back in her seat. She smiled suddenly as Maura continued the ways around not really needing to see her today. "I'll stop by when I get in before my tour; maybe you can make me one of your fancy coffees."

Jane considered anything with steamed milk in it fancy.

"Oh well the quality on the press in my office is only rival by the level of the roast you all purchase for the break room."

Jane began to get out of her car. "Give it a month; we'll be back to that cheap stuff you hate soon enough. We don't make enough to maintain that coffee machine."

"Sad but true, Nina is saving me a matacha cube."

"Matcha? Why? Don't you grow that stuff in the back?"

Maura made a face briefly and then chuckled. "That's marjoram, I'm surprised you paid attention." She had held Jane hostage one afternoon last year after one of her fencing matches and brought her to a garden supply store and nursery. She had gone through all the herbs and vegetables she wanted to grow (by specie name of course). Jane had nodded but seemed less than pleased to be missing a Red Sox game. The ME never thought she'd actually commit any of it to memory.

Jane shrugged. "Well y'know, most times I do."

"After coffee?"

"I can't be liable for the rest, Maura."

"One day I will say something incredibly important." She joked.

Jane keyed into her apartment. "C'mon."

The blonde put her mug down and smiled. "Are you home?"

Jane shrugged out of her blazer and tossed her keys aside. "Yeah." She rubbed her face.

"Drink some water. You're not nearly as hydrated as you should be given your line of work."

Jane grabbed a cup from the cupboard and turned on the sink to fill it up. "Anything else?"

"A wide range of studies on napping times have been conducted to determine the most optimal amount of sleep."

Jane headed down the hall toward her bedroom with a glass of water in one hand and her phone in the other. "Mm?"

"Results for best restfulness actually say twenty minutes is best,-" Jane put the woman on speaker phone as she rested her cup on her cluttered nightstand to peel off her shirt and slip out of her heavier woolen pants. "—grogginess and the replacement of neurotransmitter. Although I suppose if this is the only time you have to sleep you could get away with an hour or so out of necessity."

Jane lay above the covers clad in only a black sports bra and boy shorts and tried to sip her water while lying down. Maura's voice filled the room with her concerns and findings on sleep. The detective had to smile a little at the whole thing. It was actually a little comforting. "Maur." She interrupted.

"Jane?"

"I hope you have a good morning at work."

Maura smiled and shook her head at herself. "I'm talking too much aren't I?"

"No I…I like it." Jane yawned. "It's just I've been up for a full twenty four hours and I'm pretty sure I'm starting to hallucinate." She joked before resting her water aside on her nightstand and yawning again. "You okay? You only go this deep into Google when something's wrong."

Maura turned her second kettle on. "I can't really hide much from you can I?"

"Gold badge and all."

"I'm fine, I just had trouble sleeping again last night."

Jane frowned. "Again?"

"Yes, I'm not quite sure what is bothering me. This whole week I slept fine."

"Well… we gotta go to the doctor now right? You hit your head in France or something and didn't tell me?"

Maura readied a new sachet to put into her mug when the hot water was ready. "No, nothing like that, Jane." She chuckled. "I don't think I would tell you if I did. You'd worry too much and I really think I am over the hump as they say."

Jane exhaled loudly. "Maura."

"Try and get some rest."

"I'm worrying, you hear me worrying?"

"It's quite loud."

Jane feigned annoyance. "You want me to call Hope or Connie about this?" She got a breathy laugh at that.

"They are both currently in other countries."

"I could still call."

"Goodbye, Jane."

"Bye." She hung up the phone and grabbed a pillow to tuck under her arm. "What does she mean she wouldn't tell me?" Jane grumbled something more before closing her eyes and exhaling.

##

"Hey Jane, let me ask you a question hm?" Kent began walking alongside her, his lab coat sweeping behind him like a superhero's cape.

"How about hmm no?" Jane looked over at him teasingly. She liked Kent, she'd never tell him that but she liked him.

He continued to walk beside her down the hall towards Maura's office. "I'm gonna ask anyway." He nodded and Jane just sighed amusedly. "If you were a hot dog, and you were dying of starvation—"

Jane put a hand up to stop him. "I'm gonna stop you right there, Clark."

"It's Kent." He nodded in correction.

Jane eyed him wearily. He had been working here for more than two years now and he still hadn't caught on to the joke. What was wrong with him? "Right, Kent." She motioned to herself. "I am not a hotdog. But I do love them, so any questions involving their suffering are going to make me deeply emotional."

Kent leaned away from her a little. "Oh… I had no idea."

Jane nodded seriously. "Deeply."

"Right yeah I understand." He scratched the back of his head. "How could I be so insensitive?"

Jane popped him on the arm gently with a loose fist. "It's okay, you had no way of knowing." She motioned to Maura's closed office door. The ME was just visible through the tilted shades at her desk reading something at her laptop. "She busy?"

Kent shook his head. "No, don't think so."

"Great." Jane nodded and unceremoniously barged into the Chief Medical Examiner's office leaving Kent in the hall contemplating his misstep.

Maura looked up startled but then merely shook her head. "You should really knock." She went back to her email.

Jane smiled as she came up to Maura's desk and picked up a skull paperweight to examine it. "'Cause everyone else does?"

"Yes." Maura finished reading the email and smiled a little at Jane. She was in a good mood, Maura could just tell by the way she carried herself, that well rested playfulness that borderlines mischief was a welcome sight, and for once Maura had scheduled this coffee break in her schedule to indulge it some. After all, hadn't Jane been indulging her? Hugging her goodnight? Letting her say all the things that she thought without consequence, she could tolerate Jane rearranging the small artifacts on her desk if it suited her, and only if she remembered to put them back. Maura crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. "You made an appointment this time, so I'm willing to overlook the jab at my professionalism with your familiarity."

Jane grinned. "Gee, thanks."

"You look rested."

Jane put the skull down back where she found it knowing Maura wouldn't quite be able to focus if she didn't. "Yeah I got some shut eye in, showered…" She moved away to sit on the seafoam green loveseat creating a distance between them that caused the pathologist to stand from her desk and walk over to the right of the office where a small coffee grind and press was stationed. "It's amazing what a shower could do…what's the science on that?"

Maura chuckled softly as she prepared a small brew. "Showers?"

"Yeah."

"Well a dopamine high, relaxed state and distracted mind can be some of the more obvious culprits. It is the only time of day most people have the ability to turn thoughts inwardly." She focused her attention on creating the right ratio of bloom as she started to pour some hot water over the pungent coffee grounds for the expresso. She would press another set purely for the crema, a wasteful method, but why not right?

"Hm… So you okay?"

Maura exhaled greatly as if to show example. "Yes, I was able to sneak in a yoga class which did just the trick." She continued to remain focused on the coffee but stole a glance at Jane sitting with her elbows on her knees trying to decide if she believed her or not.

"Korsak filled me in on that report you brought him. What do you think our vic was doing near the docks to get that dirt under her nails. She lived near you almost."

"Well right now I am actually emailing a colleague regarding the sample we found. My hypothesis is that whoever had something to do with her death has something to do with the docks."

Jane gasped. "Maura… are you….gumshoeing?"

Maura rolled her eyes. "Hypothesizing." She moved to the end near her desk with the spent coffee ground filter and discarded it in the water basket before returning to her time sensitive work of foaming milk. A tight smile crept onto her features after steaming some. "I am going to attempt a heart on your cappuccino, is that okay?" She asked over her shoulder.

Jane wore a small grin. She unclasped her hands in a small shrug. "What the hell, have at it." Maura looked excited as she turned her back to focus her attention again and Jane shook her head. "You better tell me if you hit your head, Maura." She added sternly.

"I want to take TJ to see the Panthera Pardus, do you think he'd enjoy that?" She knocked the bottom of the newly frothed milk container against the counter twice before reaching for a small spoon to lean against the lip of it to strain the warm milk into their espresso.

Jane raised her brows. "What? A panther Maura? He's a baby I don't even think he's allowed in that area yet."

"I'm sure the zoo can make an exception for one of their biggest private supporters." She began with her cup first to practice the heart. "Besides the areas are completely safe, I wouldn't suggest it if I hadn't looked into it myself." She stepped back and looked down at the heart and made the necessary spatial adjustments mentally before starting Jane's. "I always loved the Big Cat exhibits in Asia, the quality of life for the animals were different then. The Boston zoo has an excellent team of zoologists who ensure the animals get the proper care they need. It isn't Asia, but it's still something."

Jane watched her work carefully. She had always secretly liked that Maura inserted herself as an aunt to TJ. She truly did take the responsibility and it was nice to think about her still being in the little guy's life when he grew older. Who else was going to teach him about the finer things in life? "Sounds expensive Maura." Jane warned. "Remember when we took him to the aquarium?"

Maura smiled at her work and looked over at Jane as she put the extra steamed milk aside. "How else is he supposed to have a grasp on just how deep the ocean is without a wall diagram?"

"It's taking up his whole room Maura."

She thought on its practicality and then shrugged. "Well Tommy says he likes it. What else would have worked?"

Jane chuckled. "I dunno, a book? Just buy him a book." Maura shook her head as if that was the stupidest idea in the world and it only made Jane laugh a little more. "Alright well just don't buy him a panther alright? I don't think that would fly." She stood when Maura moved to bring both cappuccino over to her.

"For you." Maura handed Jane the better looking heart and Jane smirked

"Aw."

"The beans are Ethiopian." They sat down across from one another slowly in efforts not to spill the hot beverages. Maura waited for Jane to take a sip. "What do you think?"

"It's good, Maura. Thanks." She took another sip. "Really rich."

Maura took a sip of her own. "It's the breast milk." but if she knew Jane was going to spew cappuccino all over herself and the chair she wouldn't have attempted at the joke.

She didn't know that though.

Maura was still trying to figure out the complexities of a well-rounded sense of humor.

"The what!?" Jane was miraculously still holding the small (albeit now stained) cup and wiping her mouth with her free arm. After the shock wore off Maura erupted into a fit of laughter and the taller of the two narrowed her eyes in a mixture of distrust and disbelief. "Maura! Someone… lactated in this?" She stood.

Maura got up, slightly red in the face and continued to laugh as she went around her desk to open a drawer and bring out some wet beauty napkins she used to remove her makeup. "I'm only kidding you." She tried.

Jane scowled at her pink cheeks before assessing the damage by looking down at the white button down shirt she was wearing today. "It's not funny. Gimmie." She snatched the wet napkins from the grinning doctor's hands.

"I punk'd you, admit it."

Jane dabbed at her shirt some and then sighed, a grin starting to tug at her lips. "Yeah you did, what the hell is wrong with you?" She laughed too now. Maura put her cappuccino cup down and pulled a few more wet napkins out and took a formal step into Jane's personal space to help the detective get the light brown speckles off her shirt before they set in.

"I've been watching a great deal of Ellen DeGeneres with your mother." She brushed Jane's hands away gently as she took over getting at the stains. They'd come right out if she were quick. Jane would only make it worse with her clumsy blotting.

The detective felt herself flush at having Maura so close dapping at her chest. "Please don't tell me that."

"We have, it's quite entertaining." She frowned. "Here." She grabbed Jane's hand and extended it so that she could get a stain near her ribcage. How did she manage to get it in her jacket? "Her timing is so precise."

Jane looked down at what Maura's hands were doing now and felt her cheeks continue to betray her command to stay cool. Maura was unbeknownst dabbing at a particularly sensitive area on her chest that began to peek with the contestant friction. She closed her eyes briefly trying to focus on anything else but couldn't. It felt….automatic, and somewhere within her an insistent heat began. Jane exhaled slowly which caught Maura's initial confused attention. She worked on though until Jane made the noise again, a bit of a hiss added to it alerted Maura to look up into Jane's eyes and their new darkness which was when Maura realized that the particularly large stain on her chest was just where Jane's left nipple ought to be.

Out of some crazed bout of cerebral motor miscommunication Maura dabbed the area twice more and watched as Jane's nostrils flared slightly in response.

The ME froze when she realized what she had accidentally started. Her hands darted away quickly from Jane's left breast and she began to flush while taking two large steps backward. "Oh Jane… I…"

Jane had snapped out of it at the same time. "It's alright it's um, these new bras…" What? New bras? What the hell was she even saying? Jane groaned as all the blood in her body rushed to her face.

Maura looked horrified. "I just, I didn't…know that your…." Had she just taken advantage of a situation without even knowing it?

Jane tried to laugh it off, but really it just made the whole room seem more filled. "Y'know they look small but …" She scratched the back of her head. "They're not really….that small…"

Maura nodded quickly. "You have lovely breasts." She darkened. "I—What I mean is that for a woman of your height and stature they are of an adequate size— I wouldn't change—" She sighed. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, Jane." Maura looked down at the white wet napkin in her hand and tossed it onto the short coffee table between them then looked up at Jane with wide eyes. "I just wanted to help."

They remained quiet a moment before Jane chuckled and cursed under her breath. Maura seemed relived at the sound but still maintained her distance. "It's… just my boob Maura. How many times have you touched it?" They had been friends for so long; this had to have happened before right? A graze here, an adjustment there…

"Six."

"Exactly, it's noth—wait six? Really?"

Maura attempted to shake her head. "I suppose. To keep record would be ridiculous." She nodded. "Quite pointless actually…irrelevant…"

Jane's brows knitted in worry. "Well it's okay…Right?"

Maura continued to nod, slower this time though. "Right…We are two adult women—"

Jane began the slow nod as well. "Yeah, who both have em… I mean between us there are four of them so that's… that's a lot really." She tried to read the look on Maura's face but couldn't. Panic continued to set in. "We're bound to y'know… get a little…" She didn't finish.

Maura agreed with a step forward. "It's only natural that at some point the subject of physical attraction comes up and... it's probably a good sign that you had a… satisfying reaction to my presence—"

Jane was still nodding, in fact they both were. "Yeah, yeah y'know they touch when we hug and that's like, really the best part about a hug with a woman right?" Maura was still talking. "Except if it's Ma…"

"—homosexual attraction could lead to the argument of the law of attraction which hasn't been as clearly defined as some might have initially thought. Many species survive with it regardless—"

"—It's um, just y'know… maybe a little different when it's the woman you y'know… have….emotions…with."

They both stopped talking.

Jane tossed a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm gonna go back to work now."

Maura nodded quickly. "Yes. Work." She clapped her hands in front of her and then let them go.  
"Have fun."

"Um, I will." Jane turned to hurry out of the office tripping slightly over nothing on her way.

Maura watched on with an alarming blush and an amazing amount of fondness welling in her chest as Jane played the stumble off and left as quickly as possible. When the door closed the medical examiner groaned loudly into her hands but soon found she couldn't quite stand still or stop smiling.

Yes, exactly like teenagers.


	16. Chapter 16

She hadn't made it very far into Santirello's before her reputation betrayed her, and upon notice every police offer offered her a greeting like a chorus.

"Dr. Death good to see yah."

"Hey, Doc."

"Doctor Isles."

"Hey, Doctor Isles."

It was like a domino effect of well-meaning professional curtsies that on any other day when stealth wasn't the main objective would have flattered her. Right now though as she reached the center of the crowded delicatessen and a certain raven haired detective poked her head up from behind a booth and locked eyes with her mid chew she felt a feeling that lacked integrity.

Maura pushed it away as she took several more calculated steps forward.

She couldn't really be annoyed with them for being polite.

Besides, the back exit which Jane just glanced at was occupied with a frozen food delivery, it would be ridiculous to try and escape that way.

She had her trapped.

Maura shook her head in amusement when Jane realized this and began to eat her sandwich faster.

The homicide detective who could shoot the hair off a pig, jump off bridges, find her way out of sinking cars, dash heroically into crumbling buildings, and survive being tortured by a serial killer had made it clear by incredibly comical and ridiculous means that she did not want to see Maura for the rest of the day.

Maura clicked over to the booth and stood beside it as Jane hurriedly chewed her sandwich avoiding all eye contact.

"Jane." Enough was enough.

"…Yeah?" She continued to look ahead of her.

"May I sit?"

Her chewing slowed and she chanced a glance at the ME before motioning with her sandwich to the empty space across from her.

Maura smiled to herself as she slid into the cracking booth and took her gloves off. She stacked them neatly beside her on the table and waited. Jane had slowed down her chewing but was really focusing on the specks of black peppercorn inlayed into her Italian salami just so, She wondered how they got them in there all of a sudden and was about to ask her friend when she realized she couldn't and in turn decided to stuff a particularly larger bite into her mouth.

"You weren't at your desk." Maura began. It was hard not to smile, she tried though. Jane was so clearly embarrassed about what happened earlier.

Jane chewed slowly so only one corner of her mouth was able to open enough to speak. "Evidence."

"That's what Korsak told me." She paused. "But you weren't there either."

She shrugged and finally looked up at Maura's face fully after swallowing. "I got hungry." She took a much smaller bite now.

"You had lunch already." She couldn't read her expression with her chewing, maybe that was the point. "Do you want to talk about what happened earlier?" Maura watched as the alarm returned to Jane's face before she shook her head no. "I'd like to. I think we should."

Jane groaned. "Maura…" She begged.

"But it's not just about me." She continued. The detective looked at her at that. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She looked around them at the busy sandwich shop and then back to Jane. "It seems as if you are." Jane continued chewing and Maura leaned forward some to speak quietly. "Sometimes you are very difficult to read."

Jane frowned and took her time to put her sandwich down and wipe her hands. Her frown disappeared and was replaced with one that was unsure and calculating; as if she were weighing the end result of saying what she had to say next against most everything. She looked around them once again at their colleagues before leaning across the table some and lowering her tone, there was a sudden seriousness in her gaze that pulled Maura in. "Earlier… Did you like it? How we felt?" She didn't want to mix matters: and if Maura really wanted to read she supposed she could open the book some to let her.

Maura blinked in surprise while her brain pelted forth a flurry of responses. She knew right now wouldn't be the time to list the enzymes responsible and under the obstructing businesses of their surroundings she wasn't sure she could with confidence anyway. So the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts simply nodded without breaking eye contact. "You've… always felt…" She covered her own wrists with her hands when their recent embraces came to mind. "Wonderful, Jane." Jane nodded to herself and looked away quickly which stirred an immediate panic in the blonde. Had she shared too much? "Are you conflicted?"

Jane sighed heavily. "No…I'm…" She shrugged. "Embarrassed." She looked back at her with a small smile. "I'm just really embarrassed, Maura." She shook her head at herself.

Maura nodded slowly as she sat up some in her seat and waited for Jane to say something more and when the detective just looked at her without guard Maura wondered how many intimate moments this ratty old booth in Santirello's had truly seen. "It's okay." She said quietly before nodding once to validate it. It was, it truly was. Jane's expression softened and Maura could feel every bit of tension between them drift away. "Will you avoid me forever in this embarrassment?" She was going to want to reach out to her friend, hold her hand possibly, but that wasn't something they could do right now. A friendly distance was to be expected of them and for now the ME was okay with recognizing why. Jane looked less stressed out though, and that was all that mattered.

Jane finally chuckled. "No."

"Well then I suppose it's a natural feeling to need to process alone." She tapped the table once. "Although next time I would prefer if you would say that it is what you need so I don't spend the better part of my lunch hour looking for you..." She hadn't been bothered at all, but she would admit to being a little more than concerned.

"I think you're right."

" Was it productive?"

"Something." Maura made an amused noise and Jane's smile widened a little at it. "Never knew you could google mouth that fast."

Maura nodded and leaned against her elbow on the table, her ears burned at the memory. "I think I was a little embarrassed too."

Jane openly marveled at this. "You?"

She shook her head. "A newly installed processing interface gives me the ability to mimic human emotions quite well."

Jane burst into laughter at this before picking up her sandwich. "See _that_ is funny."

"No more lactation jakes."

"Please."

They laughed together until nothing but small flushed smiles were left and curious eyes. Jane broke contact first by looking about them before looking to her sandwich.

Maura hadn't asked if Jane thought she felt wonderful too because she hadn't had to. She had to admit though; Jane's question had taken her off guard some. What did a verbal confirmation to a known fact mean? Had their goof up today stirred something else Jane was comfortable to leave settled? Though open minded on many levels Jane was one who liked very clear guidelines, the law, her role in her family unit, the detective without a task was almost hilarity. It didn't matter if she didn't want to do it or not, Jane Rizzoli valued structure. Maura was stricken with the observation just then that it were quite possible that they were more alike than they ever thought. Verbal confirmation allowed the script to be written to mirror the new information, it allowed for guideline amendments, it allowed for footnotes,..

"Detective Rizzoli! Dr. Isles!" The two women snapped out of their own thoughts quickly at a younger officer clad in his crisp BPD uniform with a sandwich wrapped in butcher paper and his hat tucked under his arm. "Late lunch huh?" He grinned.

Maura clasped her hands on the table and smiled politely. She was sure she wouldn't be able to do much about the blush at her cheeks now but she would try. "Yes. How are you office Rollins?"

He nodded happily. Maura and Jane had recently made speeches at his Academy graduations. "Doin' alright doin' alright." He looked over at Jane who was nodding but saying nothing and then back at Maura who seemed a little more enthused about his presence. "It sure is cold huh?"

Maura nodded, a small smile appearing. Jane sometimes had the hardest time masking her thoughts. "It is, Detective Rizzoli and I were just talking about that." She turned to Jane and gave her a look. "Weren't we, Detective?"

Jane perked up and cleared her throat. "Yeah, don't think we'll get a spring at all." Maura was always so damn nice to the recruits.

Rollins smiled wider, it looked painful. "I know." He chatted with Maura mainly for a moment more before excusing himself and wishing them a good lunch.

Jane put her hands up the scars on her palms showing themselves in her defense when he left and Maura gave her a look. "I'm eating; everyone here knows to leave me alone."

"It's your second lunch, Jane." She shook her head.

"It's still a union approved break, Maura."

"He's sweet"

"You're too nice." Jane motioned to her sandwich wanting to change the subject all together. Maura had missed her own lunch looking for her and she realized she felt bad. "Hungry?"

The ME sighed. "Do you think they have any soup left?" She reached for a creased menu wedged between the salt and pepper shakers and a sticky ketchup bottle to her far right.

"It's pretty late." Jane looked over her shoulder at the service counter. "We can ask."

On their walk back to the precinct both women remained quiet until Jane noted the tall building she had worked in for a better part of a decade approaching them. BPD signified a lot for her, pride mostly, and some irreversible loss. Right now it signified the end of their walk, and soon Maura would enter a different elevator and they'd go another few hours without reason to really see each other. Jane had had plenty of work to do but if she didn't do what she had been thinking of doing for the entire week now she wasn't sure she'd get much of it done.

"This weekend should be fun." She began with a small nod as they slowed down some on the sidewalk that had brought them to BPD.

"A day at the zoo." Maura looked over at her and smiled in agreement. "I am curious to see how Tommy does."

"Do you think she'll take him back?"

"I couldn't say, so much time has passed."

"Hm." They started up the steps to BPD.

"Do you have an opinion?"

"I'm really impressed with how mature he's handling things. Never thought that day would come, and now that it has I feel a little bad for not cheering him on more…. Any woman who doesn't see all this growing up isn't good enough for him anyway." Tommy had said he loved her so there was this tiny part of Jane that worried how he would take that not being reciprocated; she'd be there this time though that she was sure of.

"I don't believe Tommy would ask for your help unless he felt he could rely on you, Jane." She paused before continuing up the stairs. "Do you think Lydia has changed?"

Jane huffed. "Psh no." Maura shook her head.. "Wha?"

"She most certainly has had to."

"What you guys get brunch or something?"

"Are you upset you weren't invited?"

"Not really…"

Maura smiled. "I'm looking forward to it, thank you for inviting me."

Jane shrugged cutely. "Well you're _Aunty Maura,_ you gotta be there."

Maura smiled and opened her mouth to say something before being interrupted by her ringing cell phone. "Excuse me." She nodded as she reached for it. Jane stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked around them. "Dr. Isles." The phone call seemed professional, Maura being very clear with a directive and making easy transitions into teaching moments. When she was done she clutched her purse with a small sigh before slipping her phone back inside.

"What happened?" Jane asked looking back to her. They had no more stairs to climb and were cluttering the landing. In the lobby glass door's reflection they looked like any old pair; gal pals shuffling to return from a late lunch Jane could see her hesitance in it and tried to straighten her posture and took a slow and even breath to get somewhat of a grip on what she was trying to circumnavigate She knew how she felt, now without question how Maura felt, but was It possible to be too familiar? They had been on this landing before after lunch holding onto the last bit of gossip about the things they tried to separate from their professional lives; some man Maura had went on a date with, Casey's proposal, the baby… Had they avoided it then or was that just another thing about life? Sometimes everything you had thought you wanted wasn't at all what you'd come to want and it had been familiarity that left you anxious about the truth.

"Nothing." Maura smiled as she shouldered her bag. "Simple supply distributors, an employee of mine was checking a substitution for our cleaning agents." She paused. "You would truly be surprised at what the federal government allows medical examiners to use."

Jane chuckled. "I'm sure it's scandalous."

"Truly!"

Jane pulled her hands out of her pocket only to return them there a moment later, Maura raised a manicured brow at this, her smile softening when she realized that Jane hadn't opened the lobby doors for her yet like she usually did. There was something more that needed to be said that couldn't beyond those doors and Jane was wearing this adorable look of indecision. "So what else you got planned for this weakened?" She asked as nonchalantly as she could.

Maura adjusted her coat about her. "Well I have fencing Sunday morning, and I wanted to see what spring greens were available at the market…" Was she supposed to say something more?

"Spring greens?" Jane motioned to them both of them being bundled up.

"Well it is a little early but there was a hydroponics grower at the green market last week that I want to go to. The micro greens last weekend were so full of flavor."

Jane nodded. "Yeah they were pretty… heathy?"

"I'm not sure how you would remember after all of that ravioli."

Jane chuckled. "Listen you keep cooking like that and we're gonna have problems."

Maura seemed confused. "I thought you liked them. Why would there be problems?" She pointed. "Was it the dough?"

"Oh, no I mean like I liked it so much that…." She shook her head. "Anyway that it? For weekend plans?"

Maura nodded but then smirked softly. "I haven't received any interesting offers thus far, what about you?"

"I switched being on call this week with Nina so that she and Frankie could go look at a wedding venue and meet with some planners."

"Does Angela know?"

"No, and Angela won't know, Maura." She nodded sternly.

"This again?" Maura smiled with her eyes. "My lips are sealed."

"Meaningless, one compliment about your ravioli and you'll be revealing all our secrets to the old lady."

They laughed. "Not all, Jane…" Maura said finally.

They looked at each other and smiled shyly but Jane rolled her eyes and groaned when she realized how silly she wa sbeing. "This is really hard." Her face was beginning to redden and she for the life of her couldn't understand why. Maura was making her nervous, and all her confidence on the matter had been reduced to this morning.

Maura shook her head, eyes full of mirth. "Why don't you go ahead and say what you wish to say, Jane."

"You're not gonna kiss me are you?" She looked unsure.

The ME looked around them at the busy police station entrance. "Not here, no." She answered seriously.

Jane cleared her throat some and tried to pull her smile in check. She had to remember to be reasonable, sensible, no matter how her chest tightened and her stomach did those annoying flips, this wasn't just any extraordinary woman, this was Maura, _her_ Maura, her best friend. "So I'm probably going to be here Sunday…" Maura nodded, a gentleness returning to her features. "But Saturday night? Do you want to finish the experiment then?"

"You won't be tired from the zoo?"

Jane shook her head quickly. "No."

"Then that sounds lovely." Now Maura shied. "I thought you had forgotten." She nodded. "Saturday night works for me."

"Cool."

They stood there a moment before Jane motioned to the precinct. "We should go inside now." she reached an arm out but laughed at the amount of sudden playful energy out of the ME when she jumped forward to open the door for her before Jane could. "Maura." She warned with a grin as they entered the heated lobby and prepared to scan in. Maura only glanced at her over her shoulder feigning innocence as she used her credentials to scan in.

##

Maura emptied the small bag of baby carrots into the strainer placed in her sink with one hand and ran cold running water over them as she nodded to what Tasha was saying on the phone pressed to her ear with the other.

"That sounds fascinating, I can't wait!"

"Do you think Jane would want to come to that?" The college student asked with a knowing grin.

Maura made an amused humming noise as she jostled the carrots about in their cold bath before taking the water off and drying her hand in her apron. "Well I believe we have quorum?" Tasha laughed on the other end. "However it wouldn't be a bad idea to propose it in such a way that would make it seem like her idea."

"I'm going to leave all that to you, Maura."

Maura chuckled as they continued to talk about the trip while the doctor prepared zoo snacks for TJ and the others. Jane hadn't slept over last night but had called frantic with the task after Tommy called in arms about how unromantic concessions stand food was, and how he wanted to show Lydia that he could provide more nutritional balance in the little guy's life but also that he was working a graveyard shift and wouldn't have time to. Frankie was already working late with Jane and Nina leaving Maura.

She hadn't minded at all. It was actually a means of good distracted energy from her lack of sleep the night before and general nerves about she and Jane. The detective had sounded tired on the phone but very grateful. Apparently Angela had a laundry list of things that she wanted to get done today before the zoo and Jane being the dutiful daughter she was strained her only morning off to help out. A part of Maura had always admired Jane's commitment to family, and another part wanted her to be a little selfish sometimes. Surely after a week of being back to work and three homicides open Jane probably just wanted to sit around and eat overly sugary cereal and watch baseball. Instead she was outside in the nippy air cleaning a drain.

Maura wanted to make their trip to New York fun. Yes she had to work and Jane had her obligations with the FBI but she wanted it to at least feel like a mini vacation of sorts. They deserved it.

"Yes and eventually we will have to sit through a hockey game so she forgets the hours of being forced into experiencing beautiful art and culture." Maura added.

"Alright, I'll even buy her a foam finger."

She began drying the baby carrots now. "I think she would like that."

Tasha moved to her small dormitory window. "Can you believe it's snowing here?"

"Snow?" Maura looked up from her assembly line of snacks to the back door where Jane had just emerged clad in worn jeans, a battered dark blue hoody and a BPD baseball cap on. The two locked eyes as Jane made it a point to slip out of her dirty sneakers before coming into the kitchen. Maura held a hand over the receiver end of her cell phone as Jane approached to admire the counter full of plastic baggies and various snacks. "Good morning." She flushed at the mute kiss on the cheek Jane offered in greeting, the brim of her cap nuzzling her temple in a way that made Maura reach up to absently touch the area when Jane moved away to look at the snacks again. Jane's brown eyes were warm albeit a little sleepy and there was a stiffness in her step that Maura decided to address later. "There's coffee." She motioned behind her to the coffee pot on the opposite counter before going back to listening to what Tasha was saying about some kind of pocket of air pressure approaching the city. "Unbelievable," She commented. "It's just been rainy here, a little icy.." Maura nodded as she began to zip up the baggies of carrots. "Yes, I will remember to bring the applicants along. Jane and I were talking about opening the scholarship up to multiple students this year…Yes…"

"S'Tasha?" Jane asked before clearing her throat so she didn't sound like a chainsaw.

Maura turned and nodded. "Would you like to speak to her?"

Jane nodded and reached her free hand out, the other wrapped protectively around her mug of coffee. "Hey Ms. Columbia," She smiled into the phone. "—I know… yeah well you only call Maura so how am I supposed to know what news you get and what you don't?" Jane glanced at Maura. "Yeah it's only on a freelance contract so….still pretty cool I guess…government clearances? Tasha I'm just going to be teaching…" She let out a small laugh. "Mhm….Alright then, yeah…okay, here's Maura." Jane handed her the phone and went to refill her coffee.

The two talked for a moment more before ending the call. Jane came to stand beside Maura. "Maur thanks for doing this but I think the idea was snack not feast…"

Maura tossed her a small smile. "I have some fruit, raw vegetables, roasted chicken Panini, olives, German potato salad, pickles, soft buns, and child meatballs; it's hardly a feat Jane."

Jane shook her head. "Where did you get the time to make all this?" Maura looked away and Jane raised a brow. "Again?"

The pathologist sighed. "I don't know." She moved away from Jane to go into her pantry for glass tupperware.

Jane frowned and waited for her to return. "Did you make a doctors appoint—"

"Be careful to stay hydrated, eliminate all unnecessary stressors, eat right." She gave Jane a pointed look. "I'm a doctor Jane, anything short of vision instability and loss of cognition doesn't warrant a scan of any kind." She unstacked the glass containers and began looking for their associated lids.

Jane pursed her lips. "I know you're a doctor, Maura."

"Will you pass me that foil?"

Jane looked behind her to the counter where she was leaning and grabbed the roll of foil. "It wouldn't hurt to still see somone. Aren't you the one telling me all the time how important sleep is?"

"This week looked promising."

"Yeah until the other night and last night."

Maura took the foil and smiled when Jane wouldn't let it go. "I'll be fine." Jane still didn't let go. "Jane."

"When are you going to let me win?" Jane asked playfully after letting go of the roll of aluminum foil finally.

"When you actually do." Maura answered simply.

Jane took a sip of her coffee. "Well if you do get any vision instability or—"

"You will be the first person I tell."

"I mean that is of course unless Ma is your medical power of attorney now…" Maura looked at her at that. "What?"

"It is still my mother."

"Which one?"

"Constance"

"She'd have to be in the country to make any decisions first."

"I don't understand your mood."

Jane watched her continue to organize the lids and containers. She sighed. "Sorry."

"What's bothering you?" Maura looked up at her.

"I'm just worried about your big ol' brain I guess."

Maura smiled. "And?"

"And I really really really wish I were in bed right now." Jane whined.

Maura chuckled. "You could have said no."

Jane brought her coffee cup to her mouth and just at that moment the back door flung open and Angela stood smiling. Jane groaned. "Do you think if I just ignore her she will go away?"

"Janie." Angela began.

"Where are your brothers?" Maura asked under her breath.

Jane picked herself off from leaning and scoffed. "What you weren't aware? Love leaves you utterly paralyzed to the notion of responsibility and chore." She chuckled before putting her empty mug down. "What Ma!?" she adjusted her baseball cap on her head.

"I need your help with this rug too. Can you move it into the other room?"

Jane groaned. "I moved that rug last month Ma, what you change your mind all of a sudden?"

Angela put her hands on her hips as she smiled at her eldest child approaching. "Not all of a sudden, it's taken me a month."

"I hope you know you are literally killing me."

Angela chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't be so dramatic, honey."

An hour or so later Jane bounced the stairs two at a time grabbing hold of the polished banister to better propel herself forward. "Maura!" She continued to yell. The short woman was nowhere to be found on the first floor and Jane could have sworn that's where she left the little cutesy tool box Maura kept under the sink after fixing the ME's bathtub all those months back. "Maura!" Jane smirked a little. Maura hated when she yelled for her like this; as if there were a fire. She said it always raised her flight response and she hated the way her sympathetic nervous system sent her adrenal medulla messages to release hormones she didn't need.

 _Irreverently unsustainable_

"Maura!" Jane jumped to the last step and took a moment to catch her breath, The Isles Estate as she liked to think of it had a rather modest second level. The hall was warm and the walls were painted smoothly with sleepy colors while the hard wood floors granted it certain brightness she couldn't really explain why but was sure there was some scientific explanation. Priceless works of Victorian era art hung along the walls with the occasional wall plant, at the end of the pathway a small window bled the morning light in through sheer curtains. The green bathroom or what Jane had really come to know as her own bathroom when she stayed over was to her right exactly across from Maura's bedroom suite. "Mauraaa" She dragged out quieter now when she spotted the woman through the doorway bringing something in a black dry cleaner bag from her closet.

"I hope you know I am choosing to ignore this behavior." She said without looking up from the article of clothing she was freeing.

Jane grinned while raising her hands as she padded into the room. "I couldn't find you."

"Eventually you would have."

"Where's that tool box I left under the sink? Ma wants to hang something but all she's got is a screw driver over there." Jane shook her head.

Maura unzipped the dry cleaning bag and pulled out a simple satin dress. "I wonder if the sight of tools reminds her of your father." She thought distractedly as she pinched the material gently and nodded to herself.

Jane took off her baseball cap and sat on the edge of Maura's king sized bed. "Should we start the clock now for my hour session or when I get to the part where I talk about them splitting?"

Maura looked up from her organizing to return to it after the quick visual checkup. "It was only a curiosity of mine."

"I mean I guess maybe, I don't really blame her though he left tools all over the place…"

"Have you spoken to him since the hospital?"

"Noo." Jane stood. "Do you know where the tool box is?"

"Noo."

Jane sighed. "I left it downstairs."

"Jane honestly." Maura picked up another black dry cleaner bag from her small stack and unzipped it. "Do you really think I would move it?" She honestly didn't know what was even in it anymore, Jane had commandeered it years ago and Amazon had only provided a brief description of its contents. The plumber's daughter laughed at its white chest and pink handles so hard that the ME had given up trying to use it in Jane's presence.

"I don't know." Jane shrugged and motioned her cap at the pile of empty dry cleaning bags on the ground beside Maura. "You'd take it to build Frankenstein or something. Who knows what you really do here when I'm not around."

Maura was amused but didn't stop her work. "Jane Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster—"

"—What's the difference?"

"I'm trying to tell you. It wouldn't hurt you to be patient." She was smiling though.

"It would." Jane nodded seriously. "Now what am I gonna use?" Maura shrugged and stepped into her walk in closet to hang another dress. "You don't care?"

"I don't care." Maura sang in the sweetest voice.

Jane chuckled. "Who's the monster now?" Maura could be heard laughing to herself. "Alright you really don't know though?"

She emerged with a hanger in hand. "I'm sorry Jane I haven't seen it."

"Alright well I guess that picture of all of us is gonna have to wait… maybe I can go home and grab my box."

"What time is everyone getting here?"

Jane picked her right hand up and pushed aside the sleeve of her hoody. "In an hour."

"There isn't time, you aren't even dressed."

Said the woman who once literally took four hours to get ready. "Maura it will take me three minutes to change—"

"And shower?"

Jane nodded slowly. "Right yes…and shower."

Maura shrugged at her over her shoulder. "You just look like you've been working to move her in instead of helping her with a few chores."

"The Master Manipulator." Jane turned to leave.

"Are you still sure you would like to finish our experiment tonight?" They still had the whole day of family time and no doubt Jane would be the main one running around with TJ. She didn't want to be the reason Jane was tired tomorrow when she had to actually go to work and put herself in the line of danger if a call did come through. "We could always reschedule." She nodded when Jane turned to look at her.

"I don't mind."

"Rescheduling?"

"No I mean y'know, helping out. Later all we're doing is walking around and looking at animals right?"

Maura smiled. "Right."

##

Jane plopped down heavily on the small wooden bench inside the darkened cave where Boston Central Zoo's bat cave was. Her breath came ragged and even in the dimness of the artificial tomb Maura could see the sheen of perspiration that occasionally clung for dare life to a thick stands of black curls.

Maura smiled at her and waited for Jane to catch her breath and look at her. The detective rolled her eyes. Maura looked damn cute in her white pleated shirt and beige leggings that matched her beige Boston Central "Friend of the Zoo" hat she got when donating Bass and an ungodly amount of money to their facilities a few years back but Jane was annoyed right now, there was no place for cuteness. Maura hadn't looked like she even lifted a finger all day and here she was sweating down to her bones.

"Would you like some coconut water?

"Coconut water, Maura? Really?" Jane looked back at her. "What I need is an IV."

Maura chuckled among the group's various bags she was guarding. "The evidence that it is actually better than plain water for hydration is unfortunately lacking, but it is rich in potassium and tastes quite yummy." She nodded. "I brought you one."

Just then TJ leapt forward at the bench and grabbed Jane's hand. "Aunty Jane! Let'a go look at da bats! We can climb dem!" His grin was wide and toothy and Jane tried with every bit of her being to stand her ground but she couldn't. She hadn't seen TJ so happy in a while and that struck her as odd. He was a toddler, a small human who had no bills and didn't have to fill up a car with gas, why now did he seem so full of life? She glanced back at Maura who paused in retrieving the beverage and reminded to ask the ME about it later as she let herself be pulled upright.

"You can't climb bats Bud, I don't think they would like that." TJ continued to pull her.

"I think he is referring to the playground, Jane." Maura pointed.

Jane furrowed her brows and followed the ME's point and groaned. "Is there a playground at every damn exhibit?" She looked back at Maura helplessly as she was being tugged along. "What kind of place is this?"

Maura watched her being dragged fondly and turned only when Nina and Frankie returned from looking for bats. Angela had been dropped off at the gift shop and Tommy and Lydia were somewhere strolling. The day had been full of all kinds of lovely moments and the ME was grateful to be a part of it. It made her think of her parents then, and their trips together as little girl. They were much quieter and definitely less sweaty but she had made it a mental note to call them tomorrow at some point or send them an email. TJ would remember things like this forever and she only hoped he or someone else would think to call or send her an email when they did.

"He's really kicking her ass huh?" Frankie spoke breaking Maura's train of thought.

She looked up at him and moved to make room for them on the long bench. "He's usually so calm with me." She mused before turning to watch Jane and TJ climbing a child size bat tower together. The detective's long legs hung off the side of it goofily once they reached the top. "I wonder."

TJ nodded cutely. "Well…Mommy said dat Daddy was doing better."

Jane nodded from their spot on top of the bat tower. One, she needed a freaking break, and two, she just wanted to check in with the little guy away from everyone so that he didn't feel pressured to tell her what she wanted to hear.

"He is, he's doing so good." Jane nodded.

TJ played with the hem of his shirt. "How come he doesn't live with us den?"

Jane sighed and put an arm around his little shoulders. "Um well Bud, that's not really an easy answer."

"Aunty Maura has all da answers."

Jane chuckled and nodded. "Yeah I know. It's a little annoying."

"Nooo."

"Well you don't work with her."

He giggled. "I wanna work with Aunty Maura, we'd read, and look at animals and she'd know all of 'em! We could come here every day right? You think she'd take me?" He nodded. "I can't dwive yet."

Jane smiled at him. "I think she would like that a lot actually."

They sat there quietly for a few moments.

"Aunty Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"Dis the best day ever."

Jane's heart melted and her eyes salted with a sharpness she knew meant if she weren't careful she'd tear up. Instead Jane chuckled softly. "You know what I think so too TJ. I like having you guys around me. Family time y'know?"

"When all duh bad guys are gone Aunty Jane you gon' come with us." He nodded surely.

Jane looked down at him sadly at that. She pulled it in tight and replaced it with a smile before putting him on the back. "Sounds good to me."

When they finally climbed down from the bat tower TJ bolted for Frankie as his next victim and Jane walked slowly over to the bench and sat beside Maura and Nina who were talking among themselves.

"What is it?" Maura asked a few minutes later when she noticed something different about Jane's quietness. Nina had gotten up to take a picture of Frankie and TJ giving them a brief moment of privacy,

The detective only smiled. "Just thinkin'."

Maura's look was full of tenderness. "Okay." She tilted her head and Jane brushed her off.

"Stop it."

Maura laughed. "I haven't done anything, Jane."

Jane pushed her shoulder tiredly. "You're lookin' at me like you wanna know what I'm thinking."

Maura only smiled. "Is that a crime?"

"In thirty seven states it is."

Maura's smile remained. "In Massachusetts?"

"Capital offense."

"What about New York?"

Jane smiled a little at her. "Eh, the courts aren't very clear."

"Interesting." She tilted her head. "I suppose I'll have to wait."

"Where are we staying anyway?"

"Oh Jane its lovely. It's a new hotel from this French hotel group, simply exquisite. Le Modern, it is near the Museum of Modern Art and not far from Rockefeller Center where we'll get bread in the mornings."

"What if I don't want bread in the mornings?" She was wearing a soft grin. Seeing Maura excited made her realize just how much she was excited too. California had been so much fun though she doubted they'd rent a convertible this time.

"Oh you have no choice."

"Ah."

Just then TJ came back running over to them with Frankie not far behind laughing. The youngest Rizzoli crashed into Maura's knees and began to laugh at the pleasant surprise on the medical examiner's face. "Well hello." She greeted cordially.

"Aunty Maura can we go see Bass now!?"

Maura smiled at his dark Rizzoli eyes and nodded. "Yes, let's." She checked her watch as she stood. "It's almost his bed time." TJ grabbed hold of her hand and looked up at her. "It isn't far." Maura looked over at Jane who nodded.

"Turtles have bed times? How? He's so big!" They began to walk still couldn't believe his aunt had once had him as a pet. It was the coolest thing to him. Bass always seemed to recognize her too, one day they'd be friends.

"Tortoises do."

TJ put his free hand to his lip as he tried to process. "What's the difference?"

"Well it's quite fascinating really—"

Frankie watched them walk away and looked back at Jane with his arms crossed to his chest. "So what? He puts us through the ringer and she gets him all calm? That's not fair."

Nina chuckled and touched his shoulder. "I think TJ knows what he can get away with and who he can get away with it with. You two are push overs."

"Hey I'm not the one who bought him candy…" Frankie nodded at Nina. "You couldn't help yourself."

"He's just so cute! How do you expect me to restrain myself exactly?"

Jane looked away from watching Maura and TJ leave to her brother and future sister in law. "Wait you bought him candy too?" She sat up. "I bought him candy when Maura wasn't looking."

Nina laughed. "So we're all guilty. What'd you tell him?"

Jane shrugged. "I told him that he could tell her in a bajillion seconds, he started counting but I think he forgot."

Nina pointed to herself. "I just told him that it was our secret."

Frankie shook his head. "Real nice you two."

Jane grinned. "He's gonna grow up with a complex."

"Or diabetes." Nina deadpanned. The three of them laughed before the moment simmered out. "He seems happier." She looked at the two siblings. "From at the hospital."

Jane nodded. "Poor kid, he's aces smart, don't really know who he got that from, he knows something isn't really right."

Frankie sat down at the edge of the bench and relaxed. "Yeah, all we could do is be there y'know?" He looked at his older sister. "He say anything to you?"

Jane nodded. "He just had questions." She leaned back on the bench and sighed. When all the bad guys were gone she'd make time to answer them.


	17. Chapter 17

Her heart thudding soon warped with the single cello creating a sinister sound that had nothing to do with ones imagination of good and evil, it was a sound so biologically human that all movement in the theatre stopped and there was a collective holding of breaths as the protagonist inched deeper into the stainless steel jungle that was the kitchen at the Michelin Star restaurant Pompey.

Jane looked to her left when Maura's hand grabbed hold of her arm. She chuckled softly at the look of extreme possession on Maura's face in the dark; she had thought the ME might die along with Patricia Waird's character if she wasn't silent too, so she let Maura hold her arm as she focused back on the large screen.

The movie had been pretty graphic, and that was coming from a homicide detective. Still Jane was glad she was able to get the seats they had though considering how late they had been. Tommy had been pretty tight lipped about what he and Lydia had discussed but they left together with TJ passed out in a sugar coma in his arms. Jane would follow up with him later. Frankie and Nina went home, and she drove her mother and Maura home before heading around the corner to her own place to shower. When she came back Maura was drinking tea with her mother and it took them a good forty-five minutes to tire the older woman out so they could leave to catch the final showing of the night without setting off suspicions.

Jane was beat, and in the beginning of the movie when the storyline took it's time to establish itself she actually dozed off some. If Maura had noticed she wasn't sure. The first scene of the movie was a botched appendectomy and the medical examiner had plenty to murmur about it without needing much retort, Jane was pretty sure she were in the clear.

The detective watched along as the executive Chef of Pompey began making professional and efficient strokes of his boning blade to his secretary Glennis. Patricia Waird watched on in shock behind a large steam kettle as the renowned chef completed his prep work for the next day's service. She had just recently dined at Pompey after meeting a group of rather charismatic doctors at the new hospital where she began her fellowship one week ago. Was this what they were all so giddy about? Cannibalism? Patricia recalled with the audience their flushed cheeks, the stolen glances in her direction as she ordered, she remembered how the master mind behind it all Chef Kirill Adolfy graced table after table as if he had been serving the same dining room for years. Her presence at the table had startled him and now as she watched him she knew why.

The shock of it all was near choke worthy even though as a viewer you knew the whole time where this was going. Jane felt her stomach turn a little at how calm the actor seemed slicing some lady up into neat little three ounce portions. Jane had seen first hand that calm, so had Maura, his replication of that was eerily accurate. Glennis Kury would go with a leek puree with a garnish of parsnip stems and lemon juice.

Jane looked around the dark theater at the faces fixed in morbid fascination. Her stomach turned again.

Maura glanced over at her when she could feel Jane's arm shifting under her vice like grip. She was about to shush the fidgety detective until she saw how blank her expression was. Maura rubbed her arm and leaned close enough to whisper. "Are you alright?"

Jane nodded quickly. She hadn't meant to disrupt the ME's experience. "Lot of people here." Maura furrowed her brows softly but nodded once. Jane knew it was to make her feel better. "This stuff is pretty realistic."

The blonde looked about the theatre. "We can leave." She whispered to which Jane shook her head no. "Are you sure?" Was it possible the movie had triggered something unpleasant? Maybe Hoyt?

The detective covered Maura's hand at her arm. "I'm good, watch the movie." Maura went back to watching on but made it a point to keep her hand on Jane's arm even once the suspenseful parts were clearly over. Jane hadn't minded one bit, something about it stopped her churning stomach and let her focus on the movie itself and not the people in the theatre and the statistics behind if they would try and emulate something in the thriller that she would have to deal with down the line.

##

"Well you love hamburgers."

"Yeah, because their delicious and anonymous."

Maura chuckled. "What if you didn't know who you ate?"

"Can I just say that I think it's weird you're asking me this?"

"I don't think it is too farfetched of a question to debate, it begs the question of humanity and our hypocritical habits. Why a cow which is a living thing with a brain that is capable of processing complex emotions? Why not a plant?"

"Complex emotions, Maura?"

"They have a best friend they share everything with. They can become attached."

"Uhuhm."

Maura smiled softly up at her from her spot beside Jane with their arms linked. "If we were cows we could be friends still, isn't that a lovely thought?"

Jane made a face. "I guess," Some movement across the street dragged her attached away from the conversation and when she was able to confirm its minimal threat level she looked back to her side. "You're asking how I could eat a burger and not a human?" Maura nodded. "Even if I didn't know them?"

" Right."

Jane shrugged loosely. "Well it's the same reason why cows don't eat other cows right? Isn't there something in our DNA that says not food?"

"Hm…" Maura nodded. "Yes, also I suppose a predatory organism is at a disadvantage when facing its own kind—yet as rare as it is it's not completely uncommon, Jane. Consider some civilizations ritualistically celebrate the consumption of human flesh. After death it is seen as a sign of respect or as a way to take in an opponent's power. Neither of these ideas have any bearing in the animal world and are purely human constructs, why is that?." She was lost to her thoughts for a few beats. Jane waited as they walked along arm in arm. The two could care less for the bitter nights wind that whipped their cheeks red and kept their hands deep into their coat pockets on their small stroll to Maura's doorstep.

Judging by the way the morning sky and the darkness of the night battled for exposure Jane was sure it was past one in the morning. Everything around them was so quiet, and she could just make out the smallest puffs in front of her from her breath. It was nice, being with Maura in such an often-missed part of the day was nice, it's newness with her friend made things seem simpler for some reason and after a block Jane decided she'd ask Maura something new too.

"All this talk about eating and stuff had me thinking." They waited at a stop sign even though there were no cars in sight.

"About?" She'd have to remind herself of that research she was recalling later.

"How come you're not a vegan or something?" Maura laughing quietly in the silence of the morning made Jane smile at its faint echo. "What?"

"I went to boarding school in France, Jane."

She grinned. "Spoiled you rotten didn't it?"

"Unpasteurized cheeses, the charcutier, foie gras.." Her face became dreamy as they stepped onto the road to cross the street. "I do abstain from eating meat from time to time, our bodies certainly don't need it. Yours especially."

Jane snorted at the jab. "It's so apart of how I have been eating y'know?" Maura's front steps came into sight.

"Things can always change, Jane."

"I know I know… but I gotta tell you, after getting the bad guy?" She looked down at her side at Maura. "A bacon double cheeseburger with extra pickles and American cheese is the best reward."

Maura smiled softly. "After a particularly challenging autopsy I reward myself with lemon curd dolloped on a pint of blueberries, I eat the whole thing in my office."

Jane chuckled. "Maura that's the healthiest thing ever, and how come you've never shared with me? I thought we were cows or whatever."

"You never share your burgers."

"Yeah…hm. I guess I don't."

Maura patted her arm affectionally with her free left hand. "You deserve to be a little selfish sometimes. From what I've read about police work and seeing you and the others…it's important to take time for yourself."

Jane nodded and noted that they both slowed down considerably at the same time. "I think New York will be good for that…"

"I'm happy you decided to accompany me."

Jane smiled a little. "I wasn't going to."

Maura nodded. "May I ask what made you change your mind?"

Jane remembered her run as they finally made it to Maura's door. "Just thinking about all the things that are important to me." She shrugged as they un-looped their arms. "I'm never going to be the kind of person who is always able to stop on a dime and show people what they mean to me with grand gestures or holidays away because of my work." She looked away a moment. "I want to try and be though, sometimes at least, y'know?" She looked back at Maura. "Especially for you, Maur."

"You do know that I don't need those things, Jane. Especially from you."

They knew each other to well.

"I know." Jane broke eye contact to scratch the back of her ear. "You'll tell me though?"

Maura tilted her head as the detective stuffed her hands back in her pockets. "Tell you what?"

"What you need."

Maura's smile was as gentle as the cold hand she cupped Jane's cheek with. They locked eyes as she spoke. "Are you asking me now?" Jane nodded. She couldn't look away If she wanted to, Maura's eyes were so whole and warm and sweet. How was it possible to have such a sweetness about you with her occupation? Jane knew she had lost some with what she had seen of the world, it amazed her how Maura remained so… Maura. "I believe…" The ME began still looking at her. "I believe I have been very fortunate."

"I don't know what that means." Jane confessed with a mild frustration at herself that Maura found endearing.

It wasn't a conversation she wanted to have just then, so the pathologist simply shook her head. "Will you hug me goodnight now?"

Jane chuckled and pulled the other woman close into their little goodnight embrace. Maura let herself wrap her arms around Jane's taller shoulders and rest her head to hers so they were ear to ear, while Jane lowered her arms to wrap around the ME's lower back and then finally her waist. A stirring whipped up in Jane's chest when she could feel Maura's body sigh into hers as if finally able to relax after the entire day on it's own.

To Maura no definition could give what this felt like justice. It was her only complaint. it was as if maybe, a divine notion ensured they were made to fit just so. Jane just felt so right.

It was impossible to think of all the times she'd try to deny it.

"You're tired too." Jane mumbled against the shorter woman's honey blonde hair when she felt Maura get just a little heavier.

"Exhausted." Maura pulled away just enough to look at Jane's face. "It is already tomorrow."

Jane groaned, it reverberated between them in a funny way. "I'm on call tomorrow."

"I have a fencing match and then Sunday dinner to help Angela prepare."

Jane's features quickly lifted. "Ravioli again?"

Maura patted her shoulder. "Apologies in advance."

"Maybe I'll be out in time, sure it'll be good."

They stood there a beat in silence.

"Will you let me go?" Maura asked softly.

"Yeah." Jane nodded, but neither woman moved. Finally, Jane leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her cheek hoping that continuing their routine would help break whatever spell she were under but it hadn't. Instead it launched her right into the depths of her own subconscious finally chaining her to the reality of how she felt and her place around her feelings. Jane Rizzoli didn't know what to do and her anxiety about doing the right thing by this woman had near paralyzed her mere inches from Maura's face. She could feel the tip of her nose brush gently onto Maura's cheek as she took a small breath in defeat. This feeling, this need, it overwhelmed her. "Maura" a plea of sorts, barely audible to even her own register. She was too sure of what she wanted to pull away, she needed help.

Maura nodded. "Won't you?" She breathed. Couldn't they? Didn't Jane want to?

Jane's brows knitted "I—"

Maura pulled her hands up the detective's arms to rest at her shoulders for a moment again before creeping them gently to the base of her neck, she impressed her thumbs onto Jane's strong jaw and directed her to look at her. "Won't you?"

Jane refused to deny her, how could she? Maura was the only person that made her feel like she was doing it all right, she wanted to give her anything and everything for that alone. She was brilliant and funny, and oh so beautiful and she could, Jane Rizzoli knew she could. "I want to." She muttered as her hold on the shorter woman tightened some and they looked at each other both knowing very well that there was no physical act that could take them too far, they were already passed the point of negative return.

Maura watched her only, she could feel her thumb pressing gently into Jane's jaw line, oh what she would give for her to speak, to confirm, to detest, to wish, anything at all that would give her a clue as to what the other woman were thinking at that exact moment. Jane's jaw remained fixed for a moment or two before it relaxed under her fingers massage. The detective dipped her head before placing another small kiss on the ME's chin. Maura closed her eyes and let her hands drop to her shoulders as she felt Jane kiss her cheek again, this time closer to her lips. There was small hesitation by the taller woman before a softness blanketed them and their lips met in a warm kiss.

It could barely crawl on it its own, but it was enough, more than enough.

Before they knew it it was over, and the two were left bare gazing at one another in surprise.

Maura recovered first; wrinkling her brow some before licking her thumb and running it along the corner of Jane's mouth where a very obvious smudge of lipstick clung. The detective blushed, but let her. When Maura was sure it was gone she let her knuckle gently graze Jane's cheek. "Better." She whispered as their eyes locked again.

A long moment passed with them standing there still partially embraced simply staring at the other.

Jane cleared her throat. "Thanks." She smiled. "You um, okay from here?" She motioned to her front door.

Maura nodded twice and reached a hand for her purse. "Yes, yes. I'm… I cam do this, go inside I mean." They both chuckled shyly. "I am perfectly capable of entering my own home." She motioned to the front door in example that she knew where she was before turning back to Jane. "Thank you for the movie…."

Jane nodded slowly before stuffing her hands into her pockets and taking a small step backward. "Thank you for the free zoo." They had been treated like animal kingdom royalty today with Maura as their leader. "Can't wait to see how all those pictures look in Ma's digital frame." She nodded again.

Maura smiled at her openly. "Yes, they should be lovely."

They stood there awkwardly before they both laughed again at themselves. "You um—just now…that was nice to do. I mean…" Jane reddened. Maura's face turned adorable at this but had no words which Jane supposed was a good thing? She didn't make it a habit of walking around kissing her best friends. There was another moment of silence before Jane tossed a thumb over her shoulder and Maura began looking for her keys at the same time. "I have to move my car…"

"Yes, of course. It's late." She singled out a key and unlocked the front door before looking over at Jane. "I thought it was nice too, Jane." She nodded once and Jane fought a wide smile.

"Night, _Dorthea_." She teased her middle name as if she were mocking it, but added a friendly wave as she took another step backwards.

Maura chuckled a little too loudly and then hushed herself with a stern look. "Go home." She whispered and made a shooing motion.

Jane turned with a chuckle caught in her throat and started up the block. When she looked over her shoulder Maura was inside the threshold with the door ajar. Jane looked about the still morning on Maura's block and made a locking motion with her hand to which the ME did as well to show she understood before heading inside.

##

Jane had an on-call ritual that she and Frost used to always do right after a crime scene intake. They would go and get the most fatting greasy drive through food they could find and park in the quick-service restaurant's parking lot and eat it before making their way back to the precinct. It started with just a club soda run, because back then most crime scenes still made her poor partner lose his lunch, and then it turned into a club soda run and a burger, because after loosing said lunch or breakfast depending upon when they were called in Frost's feverish appetite would show itself and he would be complaining all day that he was starving, and then one day they wanted tacos instead of a burger, and then the next day fried chicken.

A thus their on-call ritual was born.

It never occurred to Jane that it might seem a little grotesque to need to eat junk food right after viewing the most vicious side of humanity until the accident. When she sat alone (if she were close enough, at his grave) and ate. It depressed her, but she did it anyway in honor of Frost's loopy stomach from when they first met. Once she confided in Maura about it, the ME had something to say about grieving, and wanting to hold on to good memories. It surprised Jane, she was fully expecting a lecture on emotional eating and the negative effects it could have on the healing process. Maura actually thought she should continue the little things that made her think of her partner in a more human light, he was a great guy, all around badass whiz-kid, and she missed him dearly, even now. Grabbing a miniature bucket of chicken and biscuits and visiting his headstone every couple months wasn't going to completely cause her to drop dead. In fact, now years later Jane looked forward to the quietness and reflection time: it became less and less about missing him because of his death and more and more about remembering how positively and permanently he impacted her life.

Jane craned her neck to read the colorful drive through menu display. "Um…yeah can I get a large coffee, black…a crispy fish sandwich…" She bit her lip in thought. "A mini apple pie…and a small fries? Please." She nodded when she was sure her order was complete.

It was Sunday, mid morning had long since stretched into the brunch hour and she had just left a crime scene of a thirty-eight-year-old Jane Doe, body dumped in the park nearly identical to the one she saw last week. A thick manila envelope sat in the passenger's seat of her unmarked car under her grey suit jacket with the specifics of the other case. She had brought it home with her on Friday and wanted to work on it over the weekend but hadn't had a moment to.

"That will be eighteen eighty-three, Ma'am. Drive to the next window."

Jane shook her head. "Ma'am." She put the car in drive and accelerate to the next window before stopping and looking for her wallet. As she was fighting to pull out a twenty dollar bill her cell phone began buzzing wildly in her lap. She smiled at the sullen teenager who took her money and picked up the phone distractedly. "Hey Ma." She snagged it under her ear to accept the bag of greasy goodness.

"Janie I need help with this damn tablet again."

Her mother's voice was soft, she was most likely still in bed. Jane rested the fast food bag in the center console before getting her coffee cup situated. "Ma it's probably just not charged again." Once her coffee was secure she pulled out of the queue and immediately into a deserted section of the parking lot.

"It's charged it's charged. I swear it."

Jane cracked the widows some to let a bit of cold air in before unbuckling her seatbelt and turning the car off. "What are you trying to do?"

"I want to watch one of my shows."

"You got the right app?" She reached for her French fries.

"A wha?"

"The right app Ma."

"App? What app? What's that have to do with anything?"

Jane sighed. "Where's Ron?"

"He's away for the day remember? He's going to meet me later."

She shrugged. She hadn't. If she were still harboring any annoyances for the guy getting her mother into an accident on accident she wasn't admitting it to herself. "What about Maura?"

Angela brightened. "Is she seeing someone?"

A french frie broke in her hand scattering tiny salty pieces all over her lap. They were frying these for way too long. "What? Maura?"

Angela's tone seemed more alive now, a true gossip would sacrifice all kinds of leisure for a good scoop. "She didn't come home until very late from what I understand, and this morning she was singing, it only makes sense, we're roommate y'know? I noticed when she was dating that lovely fellow with the daughter that she sang too…It must be someone. Has she mentioned anyone?"

Jane blushed a little as she dusted her lap onto the car floor. "One, you're not roommates, and two leave her alone will yuh?"

"So she is seeing someone." Angela concluded triumphantly.

"Ma."

"What? I can't be concerned? You girls need to find someone nice to settle down with. Have some happy times instead of dealing with all these dead people all the time—oh! Janie it's loading. I gotta go."

Jane shook her head. "No meddling just watch your shows."

There was a distracted pause on Angela's end. "…I don't like your tone."

The detective chuckled. "Bye, Ma—."

"Oh Janie. How are you feeling today?" Jane could hear the show beginning in the background.

"Not depressed, Ma."

"Well I was just asking, you seemed… quiet yesterday." The show paused. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Jane shook her head. "No."

"Hmph, you kids—"

"I'm at work Ma." Jane sighed.

"Alright alright, shoo me off the phone. You know I love you honey?"

Jane smiled. "I know. Love you too, Ma."

"Bye, sweetheart."

When she hung up Jane tossed her phone onto her case work beside her and sat back to enjoy the first sip of her coffee.

She and Maura had kissed last night.

Well… technically this morning.

It didn't take a Detective First Class to know that the singing and the event were correlated. It sure did help though. It made Jane nervous in the kind of way getting a promotion did. Just the right amount of general anxiety mingled in with excitement of a new prospect. She wanted to do it again and was now very certain that Maura wanted her to as well.

With a small sigh of reality and a large mouthful of the stale apple pie snacker Jane tried to temper her excitement; she had to have known that they would be compatible physically. What did this mean? The experiment was finished, she supposed there'd be the questionnaire, a thinking period and then what? They talked? Then they try to tell others? Would anyone even understand? They had been compared to so often as sisters, and Jane wondered if that was because there was no other word wildly acceptable for two women in the same generation who were as close as she and Maura. Sister's didn't hold one another the way they had been though, and sisters didn't kiss one another goodnight.

##

"You're being very secretive." Maura reached out and quickly stopped him from mixing the large bowl of dark leafy greens meant for their salad with his bare hands before handing him a pair of wooden salad forks. "These work a little better and prevent the spread of potentially fatal pathogens that are often em—present in your line of work."

Tommy looked at them suspiciously for a second before shrugging and taking them from her to toss the salad. "Well you know." He grinned. "I don't want to jinx it."

"So the conversation was worthwhile, did she enjoy the zoo?"

"She did, Lydia loves animals, it was the best idea." Tommy nodded. "No one enjoyed it more than TJ though, it took me two hours just to get the kid to shut up about turtles and bats and lions." He chuckled. "He asked when we were goin' again, you believe that?"

Maura emptied a small bowl of pumpkin seeds into the salad before touching Tommy's tall shoulder. "I would be delighted to take him any time."

Tommy was getting the hang of fluffing the salad and did so now with a childish vigor that made Maura worrisome. "He really looks up to you y'know? Don't tell Jane, but I think she's got some solid competition for best aunt award."

"I get a lot out of the experience too—" A piece of kale flipped over Tommy's arm and onto the floor. "Thank you, it's perfect, Tommy really…"

Tommy grinned TJ's toothy grin before slapping his hands together and rubbing them. "What else?"

Sunday dinner was running late tonight, Angela was at a department store sale right outside of the city and was just getting in leaving an enormous amount of pressure on Maura's shoulder for the famed Gnocchi Night. Luckily the matriarch had a few tricks up her sleeves, and when that too were exhausted she dictated the recipe over the phone as Ron drove and then sent Tommy over to help out. Frankie and Nina were on their way now, and Jane was still a no call.

She was too anxious about the gnocchi to really mind Jane missing out because she was buried in paperwork. Maura almost rather not have Jane come at all even though she had been thinking about her all day. Gnocchi night was just too important, and she was certain if Angela didn't walk in the door in the next hour she'd have a complete emotional breakdown.

Breathing helped.

And Tommy, Tommy helped too. Maura always felt he were the most open of his siblings, it made him thoroughly entertaining and an honest delight to talk to. He distracted her well enough and she was wondering if that was what Angela sent him over to really do. "Let's see…" Maura scanned the kitchen. "I'll stir the ragu, and how about you put on some music and set the table?"

Tommy nodded. "Alright, I'm on it, what do we want? A little Tupac? Maybe some Beach Boys?"

She blinked, he was serious. "I was thinking maybe…. Motown." She nodded politely.

Tommy nodded. "Right right." He went into the living room to the media player tucked into a dresser. "So anyway, you think Frankie and Nina would like a bar as a wedding gift?"

Maura moved to the stove and put on mittens to lift the lid to the boar simmering into tenderness with onions and peppers. "A bar?"

"Yeah y'know, a bar." Tommy was busy bent over turning dials.

"A bar of what?"

"For their place, I got a guy who works as a carpenter, said he could make this really cool unit for me…I guess they could use it as a TV display." He chuckled at himself. "Easy Rizzoli, two years clean and you're still thinking about bars." Sound filled the large space and Tommy nodded with his hands on his hips as if he had built the sound system himself. He came back into the kitchen and went into the drawers beside Maura for utensils. "You think they'd like that?"

"That's actually really thoughtful, Tommy. I think it would make a great gift. Even though I believe the fifth year is the wood anniversary gift traditionally I'm sure they would appreciate it." She watched him eyeing the two spoon sizes. "The left one."

He nodded in thanks and tossed the other handful back into he drawer. "Cool."

"How has everything been for you, with the program?" She asked carefully.

"It's been workin' some, not working some. Been clean though, that's the good part.." Tommy admitted. "TJ helps; lookin' at him, y'know immediately I don't want a drink…thinking about him growing up without me and all… Pop being in town sure complicates things huh? Frankie and Janie won't even try to see it from his end. I get their mad but y'know… he's not a bad guy."

Maura nodded, she didn't feel right speaking to Jane's feelings as if they were her own, and she wasn't sure she knew how Frankie felt either, still the Medical Examiner felt she had to defend them at least a little. "Disappointment can drive many other emotions."

"Yeah but he's trying."

Maura nodded. "Yes, there has to be something said for that…. Perhaps he might try a different method?" She knew Jane was hurting over the whole thing by the way she completely shut down about it. She hadn't entertained any semblance of a conversation or observation with her since the hospital, and that was even with this new closeness.

"Rizzoli & Sons gets sold to some cooperate ass wipe tomorrow…." Tommy adjusted a spoon at a place setting. "He needs to the money for this New York move."

Maura nodded at the new information. She didn't know if it were worth having though and decided that going deeper in this conversation with Tommy was making her a little uncomfortable. "How is TJ's skin? Did you purchase the humidifier?"

Tommy finished the table and came back into the kitchen for his can of flavored seltzer. He learned at the zoo that is was Lydia's new favorite thing and was trying it out for size. "Yeah I did, he's definitely sleeping better. No nose bleeds."

"The Environmental Protection Agency recommends keeping the humidity level in your home between thirty and fifty percent. It makes sense that his skin was affected. I'd keep an eye on it though, air too humid can promote the growth of Stachybotrys chartarum, the infamous genus otherwise known as black mold." She handed him the finished salad bowl she had put a damp paper towel over to keep crisp until everyone arrived. "If respiratory disease is hereditary it would only make the situation worse."

Tommy took the bowl to find a spot for it in the fridge. "I remember getting these rashes as a kid pretty often, kinda grew out of it though."

"I know a wonderful woman who is an allergen specialist in Cambridge, I'll give you her number for him." Maura nodded. "It could be genetic, Jane is prone to nose bleeds if the relative humidity drops below fifteen percent." She moved over to the gnocchi dough and checked her watch. She would have to start it at least if Angela didn't walk in the door in the next ten minutes. She had seen the woman do it countless times, it was merely a matter of replicating it. She replicated a Y incision perfectly the first time she had to do one on her own, there had been a similar level of anxiety then to this, if she just focused her hands she would be fine…

Tommy looked over at her curiously from inside the open fridge. "How do you know that?" He chuckled.

"What?" She asked distractedly.

"Janie's nose bleeds. I didn't know she still got them."

Maura blushed a little at the intimate fact. It was something she had known for years now, and until spoken allowed seemed like something every good friend would know if they minded their friend's comfort. "I suppose I just know." She nodded and quickly thought of something to change the subject. "After the salad is in the fridge would you mind grating some cheese?"

Just then loud voices could be heard just outside the front door before it open revealing Abgela and Ron. "Oh thank goodness." Maura sighed with a big smile.

Angela saw it and laughed. "Have you started?" She came over to the kitchen immediately while Ron took off his shoes and fought with Angela's shopping bags. Tommy went over to help him.

"I was fearful I would be exiled from my own home." Maura shared.

The mother of three chuckled. "We'll do it together, someone has to learn, who's going to make it when I'm an old lady?"

Tommy walked through the kitchen with his arms full of shopping bags to get to the back door. "You are an old lady, Ma."

Ron followed behind him with arms full as well. "A beautiful old lady."

Angela wacked him on the shoulder. "Bag boys don't get to weigh in." She went to the sink and washed her hands. "Lord knows Jane never had the patience to get past my spaghetti and meatballs recipe. Here, let's make some space."

Maura moved aside the bag of double zero flour to clear the work bench. "She makes it quite well, that and cereal."

Angela chuckled. "Someone has to learn, now, first remember that you don't want to kneed it too much, they will become tough little pebbles if you do."

Maura leaned against the counter and watched carefully. "Right."

Nina and Frankie arrived about fifteen minutes later with very little explanation about where they had been all day when Angela asked. Nina expertly navigated not mentioning the wedding Venus they had looked at and instead inquired about the shopping trip her fiancé's mother had taken all day to go on. Wine was poured and eventually the gnocchi were ready to boil off.

Frankie and Tommy were sitting on the couch watching tv and talking quietly amongst themselves when Frankie felt his cell phone buzzing in his pocket. He put his glass of wine down on the coffee table before reaching for it.

"I think that's a good idea man." He nodded. "He's getting older, wouldn't hurt to put him into something that will keep him focused on school."

Tommy nodded. "Lydia wants him to do chess club." He huffed. "What's he gonna learn sitting around all day? He's gott get into karate or something."

"Hold on it's Jane." He motioned to the screen of his phone with incoming call image of Jane sitting at a Red Sox game grinning with a beer in her hand. If one looked close enough you could make out Frost's hands clasped in concentration sitting on the other side of her as he watched the game. They were miss scheduled for whatever reason that day and not needed at the station. It had been a great day. One of his favorites actually. "Janie, where are you?" He answered.

"I'm stuck in traffic." She groaned. "You guys sit down yet?"

"Yeah and we ate all the gnocchi—"

"It's gnocchi night!?"

Frankie laughed loudly. "You forget?"

"While you were off looking at flowers and cakes I actually got another homicide on my hands,"

"Yeah yeah yeah, just get here." Frankie hung up. He looked over his shoulder and called to the women in the kitchen with Ron. "Jane is on her way!"

When Jane burst through the front door fifteen minutes later everyone was already seated at the table eating. She hurriedly took off her shoes and all but stumbled face forward into her seat beside Maura, only giving the ME a glance in acknowledgement before reaching for the large bowl of gnocchi at the center of the table tossed in a light red sauce.

"You aren't going to wash your hands first?" Maura asked innocently.

Jane paused to look at her while she held the big bowl suspended over her own empty one. Maura raised an eyebrow at her and Jane bit the corner of her lip. "I washed them before I left work…"

"And no guns at the table!" Angela added shaking her head. "How many times do I have to say it?"

Jane looked over at her mother with big eyes. "But Ma I—"

"No buts, It isn't safe, and I don't care how many cops are in this family,weapons at the door please." Angela reached for her glass of wine and looked over at Frankie.

He sat up at attention. "Wha?" He hadn't worn his off-duty weapon today. "Don't look at me."

Maura watched Jane sulk as she got up making it a point to scrape her chair as she went into the front hall to put her gun in the lock box in the top drawer of the end table there. When she returned she wasn't wearing her badge either. Jane plopped down beside her only to groan even louder and get up again to wash her hands.

Everyone laughed and while her back was turned at the kitchen sink played at them going for seconds and thirds and wondering loudly with false concern if there would be enough left for her. Jane cursed them under her breath but was surprised to find her bowl full to the brim when she returned and Nina pouring her a glass of wine.

"Cmon, Janie." Frankie chuckled as he ate. "What'd you think?"

Jane finally relaxed. "I thought I was going to have to buy a new family."

They all laughed. "Before she had teeth she wanted gnocchi. You know your father would sneak you some when I wasn't looking, you could have choked!" Angela smiled at her daughter. "You kids ate pounds of it when you hit puberty too. It was too expensive."

Tommy chuckled and looked to Ron. "Janie ate the most. Made you really wonder."

Frankie laughed too. "It was all out war on gnocchi night." He looked to Nina. "That's how I broke my toe, remember? I was telling you?"

Angela laughed. "Lord, we had to bring it to the emergency room with us or else Tommy and Jane weren't going to come. No loyalty."

Jane laughed remembering it well. "It was either Frankie's life, or the gnocchi."

"Pretty obvious at that point." Tommy nodded.

##

"Here, let me help."

Maura looked up from the dishes to see Jane come over to help her dry them. "Thank you." She smiled. Until then she had been sitting stuffed and happy at the table with the others just chatting. Angela and Ron retired early leaving the rest of the kids to open another bottle of wine and relax. At some point Jane had noticed Maura excuse herself to the restroom before coming into the kitchen and begin straightening up some. It felt weird to be sitting beside her empty seat though they had hardly said much to one another all night. There were those soft glances, and at one point during the meal Maura had touched her shoulder while trying to recall a story. Jane took them as all good signs. So when the conversation with Tommy and Nina hit a lull she got up and brought the remained of the plates into the kitchen while she tried to think of something to say that would let the other woman know she had thought about her all day without it sounding too lame.

"There's always too many dishes."

Maura was already running the dishwasher for the glassware and silverware but Jane was right, there was still a good amount of plates and other serving things left that she decided washing by hand would be faster. "There was a time when it was just four of us on Sunday's. Do you remember?"

Jane nodded. "When Tommy was locked up…" She chanced a look over at her friend. "You remember when I invited you 'round back at the old house?"

Maura chuckled softly at the memory of her first Rizzoli Sunday dinner. "You were so nervous I wouldn't like it."

Jane dried a bowl. "Yeah." She remembered wanting Maura to find the food interesting, as if the cultured woman had never had Italian food before. "Could you blame me? Between Frankie burping the and Pop telling those dumb plumber jokes I was pretty sure you'd never want to come up to the Bullpen ever again."

Maura made an amused noise as she shook a plate of the access water and handed it to Jane. "We were just starting to be friends then. I found the whole thing charming."

Jane snorted. "Don't lie."

Maura chuckled. "I was a little alarmed."

Jane laughed. "Knew it."

The pathologist handed her another plate. "How was work?"

Jane put the dried plate aside. "Got a call pretty early this morning, Jane Doe in the park. Kensington. Kent said he'd have an idea for me tomorrow morning, but he thinks it's the same COD of our last park victim."

Maura thought on it. "Was did lividity suggest?"

"Couple hours, would have put here there around eleven at night, right before we went into the movies."

"Kensington Park would have been closed at that time."

Jane nodded. "That's why I'm not automatically thinking their connected, but I haven't really got too far into victimology."

"I slept well last night." Maura looked at her briefly and Jane smiled a little to herself as she worded to dry off another bowl.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes."

"You don't know why?"

"I have an understanding of sorts."

"Ah." Jane nodded before stealing another glance at her left where Maura stood preoccupied with scrubbing. "I've been uh… thinking about…" Maura looked up at her for their eyes to meet. "George Herman, all day."

Maura's brows furrowed, a laugh played at her lips. "George Herman?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah. Y'know…how he was doing, what he was thinking about…" She paused in thought. "If he had any other turtles in his life that maybe were thinking about him too.."

"He's a tortoise Jane, they're very solitary creatures. Aside from Bass I don't believe he has known another in his adult life."

Jane went back to drying. "You never know." She shrugged.

Maura went back to washing dishes silently. "Oh…." She said a moment later, her cheeks flushing gently. "Were you referring to me just then?" She looked over at her as Jane sighed. "Possibly?" She pushed into Jane's shoulder a little and the detective cracked a grin. "Yes?"

"More washing, less talking."

"You'd honestly prefer me not say anything?"

"You have no idea how much."

Maura chuckled, Jane was beginning to blush now. "Some people wouldn't take this abuse."


	18. Chapter 18

The conversation hit a small lull as Jane settled her chin on the cool bamboo floor mat and smiled softly as George waddled around in a little circle. The expanse of Maura's Wensa seemed to be to much for his little mind to comprehend spatially. She wondered if he had ever really lived outside of a tank suddenly. Now the detective wasn't about to doubt that Maura didn't travel to South Africa specifically for the dwarfed version of Bass to gift her but she doubted it highly. The little tortoise found her eyes and paused before retreating a little into his shell cutely. Jane put out a finger and he poked his head out some to look at it. She looked over at Maura lounging on the resting bench in the corner of the small room clad in her silken mauve pajamas with a cup of tea resting on her thigh. She had been watching her with a soft expression on her face.

Jane motioned in concern. "He keeps going in his shell."

"Cold-blooded species are extremely susceptible to environmental temperatures, by moving between shade and light he acquires his preferred body temperature, it's perfectly natural." Her tone was relaxed causing her words to fill the space soothingly.

"Oh." Jane looked back to him from her spot lying on her stomach. An unmeasurable amount of time passed like that. Jane watching George and Maura watching Jane. The detective eventually sighed contently and looked over at her. "Should we have another?"

Maura chuckled softly before taking another sip of her tea. "No, Jane."

Jane propped herself up on her elbow and rolled onto her side to face the other woman across the room. "Okay." She agreed easily. They stared at one another quietly. "What happened today, with you and Tommy?"

Maura blinked. "What do you mean?"

Jane let herself shrug lazily. "You two are usually so chatty."

"I would hardly describe us as chatty, Jane."

"Well alright, talkative, friendly. What happened?"

"Nothing happened."

Jane tilted her head. "He try and kiss you again?"

Maura smiled. "No."

She narrowed her eyes playfully. "You won't tell me?"

"It would only upset you."

"Well now I have to know."

"You'd rather be upset?"

Jane huffed softly before looking back to her pet. "….If we line the floor with sand and get those gate things for the door I bet we could fit three more George Hermans in here."

Maura hummed with amusement as she thought of the added responsibilities. "I hardly have the time for one."

"Half of one."

"You aren't a very present caretaker, Jane." She reminded.

Jane looked at her harshly. "Hey not in front of him okay? Let's talk about this later." She patted Gorge's shell gently as she rolled back onto her stomach to look at him. A long moment passed. "Your parent's ever fight in front of you, Maur?" She was suddenly far away and humorless.

Maura let her mug rest gently against her thigh, it's warmth was soothing as she tried to recall. "No… Once." She corrected herself.

Jane turned her head to look at her. "Oh yeah?"

"I couldn't understand it until I met Patty… I was only a little girl."

"What happened?"

Maura shrugged. "My mother had a conference in Boston." She smiled softly. "I was at the age where she imagined soaking up as much culture as possible would be good for me."

"So what like eleven?"

"I was six."

Jane chuckled. "Course." Maura was probably a very cute six-year-old. Jane briefly wondered if they made lab coats that small, for some reason it was the only way she could imagine the ME. "Where in Boston?"

"A new developing center near Dorchester."

"We could have bumped into each other."

Maura allowed herself the imagination to wander what that would be like. "I'd have thought you very odd." She hadn't interacted with many children her age at that point but was struggling her way through H. G. Wells already.

Jane chuckled. "I think I'd be afraid of you."

"Really?"

"Eight-year-old Jane? For sure."

"You've never struck me as a fearful child."

She shrugged. "So what happened?"

"My father didn't think it was a wise idea."

"They were yelling?" Jane looked down at her arm to check the tortoise who was now somewhat infatuated with it.

"Yes. I remember wondering if someone had gotten ill, I'd never seen them disagree so strongly."

"Connie wanted you to go with her?"

Maura nodded once. She brought her mug of tea to her lips but paused. "When everything happened with her accident I couldn't bring myself to ask her if that was why."

"Gonna side with the other Dr. Isles on this one."

Maura looked at her. "Really? Why?"

"You were just a baby, Maur. That would have been confusing if you did meet him then and who knows, it probably wasn't safe."

She supposed that made sense. "They didn't speak to one another for days, when my mother left for the conference they reconciled." She tried to think of any other time she saw her parents with raised tones. "I believe that was the only time…" She had never really been clear what came of her father's infidelity her parents were still together and seemed happily so, still there had to have been some sort of argument right?

"That's where you get your cold cold shoulder from I'm guessing."

Maura chuckled. "It's quite possibly a conversation of nature versus nature." She took a sip of her tea. "I don't see the reason for a big debacle. I'd rather try and calm down first."

"Maura you Ice me out." Jane laughed and pointed at her. "You look like you're about to say something, there's an eyebrow twitch or something. Look." She pointed to herself to mimic the twitch before darkening her features into a simple unamused stare. "Like that."

Maura laughed. "I do not."

Jane nodded from her spot on the ground. "You really do. The time I spilled coffee in your car—"

"Which time exactly?" She arched an eyebrow.

Jane grinned. "Not important—"

"I only Ice you out, as you say because you have a stereotypical temper." She nodded. "Especially while your menstruating."

Jane grimaced. "C'mon—"

"It would be unproductive to nurture it so I take the high road."

"You take the high road?" Maura nodded. "Bullshit." Jane chuckled.

"How exactly do you expect me to deal with someone so impossible?" Jane shrugged. "You eventually learn."

Jane shook her head in amusement. "You're kidding me right?"

"No." Maura nodded simply. "I've learned to be patient, it is not icing you out if the outcome benefits both parties." She took a sip of her tea confidently. "It took you almost a month to kiss me back after all, but you did."

Jane laughed. "Yeah well…" She scratched the back of her head. "it wasn't you icing me that helped that so…"

"What was it?"

Jane weighed her responses. "You waiting for me." She nodded suddenly aware of their aloneness.

For a moment Maura didn't respond. "I'm not sure it's possible to measure the amount of time that could have elapsed before I thought my efforts were in vain."

Jane smiled softly. "I didn't plan on making you wait too long." She admitted quietly. The room suddenly felt a lot smaller than it actually was too. "I just needed…time to think, undue all these knots y'know?" She sat up and motioned to her chest.

Maura adjusted her posture as well. "This is new for me too, Jane." She began quieter still. "However when I think about all my relationships new or old, I can't help but compare them to…you."

"We've never done anything like this before."

"I think that's what scares me. There is no rubric…no peer reviewed works to site…" Her smile was cute and unsure.

"Well, one now. Right?" Jane played with the fabric of her tank top.

Maura nodded. "Yes, one." They had been on an actual full date…

"How do we get it peer reviewed?"

Maura's smile grew. "It's a daunting task." Jane nodded, fully present and concerned about the next step. "High-impact research journals accept less than ten percent of the articles submitted to them, although the acceptance ratio for special issues or special topics sections is normally over forty percent."

Jane hesitated a moment. Those odds didn't sound too good the first time around. "… so maybe we should wait a little bit before we um…publish?" After kissing Maura she couldn't be more sure of what she wanted but putting this thing, _their thing_ out there so young and vulnerable seemed reckless to her.

Maura nodded. "I agree, Jane." She wanted more moments like this one, with just Jane, she had always felt that way though. "In the interim?"

"We could… go on more experiments?"

"Dates?"

There was a pause in Jane's response before she nodded once. "Yeah, Maur. Dates." It was important to differentiate now she realized. "Is that what you wanna do?"

"I'd like that." She leaned forward in her seat and crossed her arms at her forearms. "We're dating?"

Jane blushed. "No—I mean… we've only been on the one." Maura trying to fight her grin made Jane chuckle and blush even harder. "Stop it." She groaned.

"What have I done?" The other woman asked innocently.

"You're going to make a huge deal out of this aren't you?"

"Isn't it?"

"Yeah but you can't walk around like that; smiling at me and shit, I come from a family of snoops, hell I'm a professional snoop, so is my brother, and have you met my mother? She's already on to you. We'd totally pre-publish ourselves."

Maura chuckled and leaned back on the resting bench. She took a moment to decide something before patting the area beside her twice. "Come sit beside me."

Jane's curiosity got the best of her suspicion and she got up and made her way over to the bench. Maura scooted over some to give her room all the while smiling at her knowingly.

Jane let herself smile back, there was nothing unclear about being closer now. They sat close because they wanted to be close to one another. They stayed up late talking because they wanted to speak to one another privately, away from the business of the day. "What do you want?" The detective asked cheekily as she finally took a seat beside her. Their arms and shoulders and legs pressed into one another gently, importantly.

"To be closer to you." Maura answered simply. She had always wanted that, before she even knew why she couldn't help but feel this magnetic energy between them. It was Jane she knew, the lean detective always had a way with people, it's what made her good at her job, but when you were among the few she wanted to be closer to as well it was as if the pull broke scientific law, and you resigned yourself to orbit her or simply live in her wake.

Jane rested a hand on her pajama clad back, it had been easy, fearless, they had been here before. As an act of comfort not intimacy, it was funny how it didn't feel much different to her. "I wanna be closer to you too." She said gently. Their eyes met and Maura shivered slightly under her gaze. Jane took it to mean she were cold and rubbed her back some. "Is this okay?" Maura nodded. She closed her eyes briefly to relish in the action before opening them to find Jane watching her intently.

"You're surprised." Maura read in her dark eyes. Her tone was low, almost a whisper but too deep and too sure, "That you affect me."

They watched each other a moment until Jane shook her head, her mouth suddenly dried. "No." She let her hand drop slightly lower to the small of Maura's back before pulling it away. "I'm surprised how much you affect me, Maura."

"Is it possible then, that we have just been a little preoccupied?"

Jane chuckled softly. "For seven years?"

Maura smiled back. "Yes."

"Sounds like a little denial too, maybe." Jane scratched the back of her head knowing on her end that had been the case especially for the last two years of their friendship.

"Perhaps some of that too."

Jane looked down to her hands at her palms specifically before looking at her best friend. "I was afraid to let you know because…well because I figured it wouldn't make sense?" She nodded at her train of thought. "You'd… be whisked off eventually, some rich guy in a smoking jacket or something."

"Smoking jackets are hardly in style." She leaned her shoulder into Jane's some. "Nor are they really my thing."

"What is your thing?" Jane asked before she could stop herself. "I mean I know with men…" She made a vague hand gesture that she supposed meant "Maura's ideal man" in her mind's eyes. "But…" She wasn't a man. "Women?"

"Tall beautiful women…" She smiled but then nodded at another thought. "In law enforcement."

"Oh." Jane's face reddened. "Good."

Maura's smile was infectious. "You were concerned?"

"A little."

They both laughed before Jane looked down at her hands again. Maura grew confused by how her brows creased and how after the usual visual distance Jane didn't look back up at her. "What is it?" She asked.

"You think this means I'm gay?"

"What?"

She finally looked up. Her concern palatable "Wanting to kiss you again?"

"I'm not sure, Jane." Maura said honestly. "Does it matter?" She wondered aloud.

Jane let herself huff and kicked out a leg in front of them, she didn't say anything for a moment and Maura just waited. If she were truly being honest with herself, truly, she knew she had never really liked men all too much, not in a man hater kind of way, she loved her brothers and Korsak, and the men she worked with day in and day out that put their lives on the line with her and for her. She had loved Casey in a way that she couldn't quite articulate now but was so certain of then, and even Dean had been significant to her. She just, never really felt, seen by them, not for her true self anyway. When she thought of herself with Casey she thought of another woman, with the same features and mannerism of herself but somehow different. So did it matter? So long as she felt seen for her true self? She supposed not. She had seen way too much to not get the value in something like that. You could spend your whole life not being seen for who you were, when you were finally freed wasn't that what mattered most? Not some label?

. Jane sighed "Surprisingly? No. "

It was Maura's turn to rub her friends back, a rough chuckle buried itself in her chest. They smiled at one another. "I wouldn't be so surprised." She reassured.

Jane narrowed her eyes at her playfully. "Hey."

"I mean, it isn't anything to be ashamed about. Homosexuality exists in all living species. Not abnormally so nor a defect of mutation of any kind either. It simply just is."

Jane shook her head. "I don't want to talk to you anymore." She dismissed.

Maura feigned hurt. "Because I knew before you knew?"

"Maura you did not know before I knew, okay?"

Maura still had a hand at her back. "I think I did—"

"Are you guessing now?"

They grinned at one another. "No." The blonde said slowly her small back rub resuming. Maura's hand created a warm patch on Jane's skin that she could feel through her tank top. It felt nice, comforting. "Do you think it's possible to make promises to one another?"

"In?"

"This." Their eyes stayed on each other for a moment more. Jane eventually nodded.

"I believe our friendship has worked so well over the years because we've always been honest with one another…. No matter if it hurt the other…"

"Yeah." She loved that about them.

"…and I know Jane that there are promises you won't make."

Jane nodded again. "There are some I can't make. Not to you, not to anyone." Her mouth suddenly dried again.

"I know." Warm hazel met soulful browns. If she were sure Jane would say there were just a flicker of hurt in Maura's eyes, but she wasn't sure, and she supposed neither were Maura. There was something in the ME's ability to not be able to tell a lie that often made hiding things from Jane difficult. Very seldom was the detective unable to correctly examine the evidence she was given though. "I don't care what we call this…" She bravely reached out for Jane's right hand with her left, "Or when we _publish_ " their fingers took a second to gingerly flirt with idea of lacing. "As long as we promise each other honesty within it. I…don't think I can do this any other way, not with you." Jane had been the best friend she had ever had and that friendship was on the line.

Jane held her hand and marveled at how something so simple could cause her heart to leap forward like it had all intentions of leaving her body. She met Maura's eyes after glancing at their hands and nodded once making sure to keep her gaze. "I promise you." Jane said softly. She picked up their hands and kissed Maura's knuckle gently, the room fell still.

Maura promised her too and for a long time they just sat their holding hands and watching George.

There was no kiss, Jane was sure she missed a window for it when they said goodnight, but it seemed to nag her halfheartedly as she lie awake in bed later after putting George Herman back in his tank.

She and Maura were….

Well she didn't really have a name for it, but it swelled in her chest bathing her in all kinds of funny out of sync emotions. It made her feel sick and incredibly proud all at the same time. Maura needed honesty from her, that was it. Jane was really thinking the list would be a little longer. The way she had said it too… it kept the detective awake long after they parted ways with a long embrace on the second floor landing complete with back rubs and soft murmurings of wishing the other goodnight.

She and Maura were…

Jane groaned softly. Was this really happening? Had she really kissed her best friend last night? Had they really been inching toward this this whole time? Jane thought back to a man Maura dated only briefly last year, Mike, or Stephen, or something, she didn't remember his name because she didn't want to remember. The ME had wanted to introduce them but Jane thought of every excuse not have it happen. Mostly she hid behind her job and of course the fact that if she saw him she'd know what the man who had been supposedly putting his hands all over the other woman looked like. Jane remembered almost wanting to hurl at the idea, she felt sick to her bones when Maura tried to tell her about their first encounter once. She could not be her best friend then, she was too emotional, so instead she avoided her, went out a lot with some cop buddies, drank, worked, worked out, and then drank again until Maura stopped by her desk and announced that she had called it off. When Jane asked why the medical examiner looked disappointed. Jane supposed it was over Mark, or Ed, or whatever his name was, but she realized just then in the dark comfort of the second-floor guestroom that it was because she wasn't being honest with her. Not with her and not with herself.

She had known what she promised when she promised it, but did not fully understand it until just then.

Jane exhaled slowly in the dark as clarity set in.

She and Maura were… Being honest.

Finally.

##

One of probably the only nice things about having your mother live less than a few feet away from your best friend's house was that on occasion the ol' lady missed having a house full of kids to cook for and when that happened you were woken with the smell of turkey bacon (because Maura wouldn't buy the real stuff) and freshly ground coffee. Jane practically hung herself with the covers as she struggled to get free from them in order to fight her brothers for first servings and it only dawned on her when she put weigh onto her stiff left knee and felt a sharp pain jolt up her spine that she was not seventeen and this was not her childhood home.

The detective stood in the middle of the guestroom hazy before running a hand through her thick hair. Did she have a dream about being back in High School? Or was she just that tired still?

There was a soft knock on the door that broke her from trying to remember.

"Jane?" It was Maura

Jane looked around the room quickly for anything offending out of pure habit. "Yeah." She called back, her voice still raspy and laden with sleep.

Maura pushed the door open softly. "Are you awake—oh." Her smile turned into a small laugh. "What are you doing?"

Jane looked at her body with the sheet wrapped around her like a snake yanking her sweats and tank top in creative directions while the majority of the bed pillows lay on the ground at her feet. "I…" She wondered how she should even begin. "Um…" She chuckled at herself. "I smelt food." She explained simply.

Maura's grin wrinkled adoringly. "I see." She was still holding the door frame and finally let go of it to step into the room and past Jane to the dresser. The detective tried not notice that Maura's actual bathrobe was a soft seafoam green and a lot shorter than her lounging robe. She had just stepped out of the shower apparently; her hair was damped a dark dirty blonde and she was leaving a trail of droplets behind her that the detective decided was the safest thing to fixate her attention to. "I just needed to get something." The ME explained as she opened a drawer to retrieve her back of stock of moisturizer.

Jane began untangling herself. "Yeah…" Her thoughts from last night before bed and their promise flooded her memory then. "You sleep okay?"

Maura had located the beauty product and was removing it from it's box to ensure a seal wasn't broken from its shipment from Switzerland. She nodded distractedly. "Yes." She looked back over to Jane and held the item up. "I've got it." The blonde padded her way back to the door and paused before turning to look over at Jane who quickly looked up at her face. "Good morning." Jane smiled cutely in return.

"Morning."

Maura prodded the full tube of moisturizer with her fingers thoughtfully. "Have… You slept well?"

Jane shrugged and then nodded. "I couldn't really get to sleep rght away." She motioned to her. "Was thinking about…y'know."

"Me either." Maura paused. "Are we…?"

Jane raised a brow. "Going to be late for work?"

Maura smiled. ""I'll be down in an hour." Were they still to carpool like normal? "Are we still to carpool like normal?"

The taller of the two put her hands to her hips. "You still the ME?"

Maura nodded. "Of course I am." She felt a small flush creep up her cheek. "An hour." She nodded and slipped out of the room quickly.

Jane stood there a moment still tangled in sheets before letting her body fall back onto the bed and putting her hands to her face. "You still the ME?" She mocked and groaned softly. "c'mon!"

##

"It's honestly a part of my job…. I can't exactly avoid doing my job because…y'know…" She glanced impatiently at the descending digital numbers. The elevator beeped along at the same artificially accurate rate with no regard toward the detective or her current mumblings.

Jane often used the back-service elevator to the rear of the building because it stemmed from the chemical lab down to the paper department of evidence and then finally the morgue. It was faster and had few if any interruptions between floors. No pushy rookie officers, no pesky secretarial staff who stared at her firearm and asked about her weekend…

No reason to delay getting down to the morgue to get the information she needed.

No reason to delay getting down to the morgue to see her best friend.

No reason to delay getting down to the morgue to see her… person she pledged her honesty to.

"I need to know who she was, what she was doing there…" Jane nodded as the second to last bell chimed signaling she were one flight of stairs away from the morgue. "It's my job." She balled up her fists and then let the go carefully. Was she supposed to lean into this too? "Y'know and if she wants to talk about us then I'm gonna have to just tell her it has to wait." Jane nodded at herself. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and exited the elevator a woman with one focus. Finding a killer.

Maura was clad in her scrubs (a sign that her work load for the day autopsy wise had been heavy) and was leaning over the woman Jane found on Sunday morning at Kensington Park. Maura only glanced up at Jane to acknowledge her before going back to what she were doing, her features were concentrated; stressed into gentle wrinkle of thought, something had caused her to consider something out of the ordinary.

Jane knew what that look meant.

"Inconclusive?" She asked before looking around. Maura were alone, a glance at her wrist watch told her that everyone was probably off to lunch. The ME had very particular ways of showing she cared about Jane that the detective always appreciated but as of recently never really looked too far into, not as expressions of affection at least. It was all chalked up to being good ol' pals except, it wasn't was it? Caring to Dr. Maura Isles was buying her favorite shampoo and leaving it in the guest bathroom for her, or sneaking in several bags of cracker jacks into her go bag for work. Caring to Dr. Maura isles was also spending her lunch break to run a second autopsy on a case that she knew you only trusted her with.

Maura stood up right finally and motioned to the victim's jawline "Your Jane Doe is thirty eight year old Riley Turner."

Jane crossed her arms to her chest. "Why do you look like Jo chewed up one of your heels again?"

Maura remained concentrated. "Cause of Death would be blunt force trauma to the head….the occipital socket here and the mandible here." She pointed to the victim's left temple and then her jaw.

Jane nodded slowly. "Not asphyxiation." Like Jessica Hanover who they found at Roonie Park covered in stab wounds. "But no stab wounds?"

"What's interesting or perhaps why I seem so perplexed—" Maura finally looked over at Jane, a small smile catching itself and then focusing back into her work with a clearing of the throat. "Is because these indentations and bruising here." She pulled up the modest sheet covering Turner's waist and pointed to marks and bruising along her thighs, groin and knees. "Is consistent with a long history of sexual assault, and also consistent with Jessica Hanover's wound pattern—and when I mean consistent I mean exactly in the same areas where the stab wounds were found inflicted post-mortem."

Jane wrinkled her brows in distress at the victim on the table. The bruised skin had greyed in blotchy irregular patterns around her upper thighs. This woman not only suffered a hideous death but had also suffered in life. "What do you mean the exact same place Maura?"

While removing her gloves the ME moved around the autopsy table to her standing desk and computer to pull up some images. Jane followed behind her. "Give or take ten centimeters or so, the rage attacks on Hanover match the bruising we are seeing here on Turner." She motioned with her ungloved hand to the monitor to the autopsy photos of Jessica Hanover's exposed waist. "Here here….and here." Jane leaned over Maura's shoulder to get a better look. "It would be quite the coincidence if these wounds were not inflicted by the same individual." She looked over her shoulder as Jane stood up straight.

"So who ever gave Turner these bruises had to have stabbed Hanover…." She shook her head and walked herself with her arms crossed back over to Turner's body and then quickly looked back over at Maura who had spun her stool around to face her. "Is there any way to tell if Hanover had similar bruising under the stab wounds?"

"Possibly."

"Possibly?"

"Jane the force in which it has taken to create those lacerations tore the tissue clean apart, I can run some tests on the area surrounding the stab wounds however it would be inconclusive."

"So this whole part about there being a possibility was to keep my hopes up?"

"Well, there is a possibility that the test could give us something…"

"In your expert opinion?"

"It is a slim possibility."

Jane groaned. "I need something Maura. C'mon, one more victim and the news is going to be on this and Cavanaugh will be so far up my ass, this guy is escalating right?"

"Or not."

"Or not?"

"What makes you certain that this is an escalation? Maybe these women specifically meant something to the unsub."

"Both are in their late thirties early forties, dark hair….seems like a mommy issue to me." She mumbled to herself as she tried to work every angle. "…doesn't explain the assault….the docks—"

"We're running rape kits now on both victims." She stood from her stool. "What I don't understand is why not stab Turner in the same manner?"

Jane nodded slowly and then motioned to Turner's body. "He didn't have enough time." She looked back at Maura. "Those wounds were after Hanover was already dead and Roonie Park where we found her was off the path some, Turner was near a bike path… something probably spooked him, next thing you know the park is swarming with police….son of a bitch was probably there." She wracked her brain to think back to that morning and the intake. "I've gotta let the others know our guy is probably in a witness statements so we can cast a wider net" She pivoted to leave in a hurry

"Jane." Maura interrupted her escape calmly as she reached for a new set of gloves. The detective whipped around.

"Yeah?"

"Will I see you tonight?" Her chin dipped curiously.

Jane nodded. "Yeah, Maur." She hesitated a moment. "Everything okay?" Had she missed something?

Maura nodded. "I was just curious."

The detective smirked softly as she pushed at the double doors to the autopsy room blindly. "Promised Frankie I'd grab a beer with him at The Robber right after work but…after?"

"Hope just got into Boston this morning from Dubai, we're going to have a light dinner, she invited you to join as well."

Jane waved her off. "No you go."

The ME knew Jane was still wary of the other woman. "So, let me know how drinks go."

Jane nodded. "I'll see you."

##

Jane closed her eyes briefly as she enjoyed the handful of house roasted nuts she just popped in her mouth. She opened her eyes and continued to munch down on them as she reached for her beer (her second of the evening) and washed down the salty snack with the bitter sweetness of one of the new IPA's on tap Frankie had been telling her about. She liked it, it was smooth and rich, the perfect thing to drink in the middle of what seemed like a never ending winter. It was cold and rainy this particular evening, the kind of evening that stained the bottom of your slacks with gutter slush and poured in consistent spatters without a real downpour which most people would at this point honestly prefer. The atmosphere in The Dirty Robber was lethargic to say the least. Aside from a few rerirees taking up a booth in a corner of the bar she and Frankie were the only ones there.

"Where's Maura?"

Jane looked to her right at her brother slouched over in his stool. He was lazily holding his pint of beer and still clad in his grey work suit with minus the jacket and a straightened tie. He was looking forward, seemingly uninterested.

"Where's Maura?" Jane repeated, honestly not really catching the question fully.

"Yeah." Frankie looked over at her

Their eyes met and Jane picked up her pint and took a sip before wiping her foam off her lip with the back of her hand. "Dinner with her Bio Mom." She explained.

Frankie nodded and pulled his own pint to his mouth. "Nina ditched me to have lunch with her today."

"So she did eat then?

Frankie shrugged. I guess."

Jane chuckled softly. "Yeah well get over it. She ditched me too then."

"What do you think they were talking about?"

Jane shrugged and took another sip from her beer. "Mm I dunno handbags?" Frankie laughed. She nodded surely and motioned her beer toward him to correct herself. "Handbags and Artificial Intelligence."

Frankie laughed louder at that one. "Sounds about right." They drank their beers and ate bar snacks for a little while in silence before Frankie motioned to his left hand. "Thinking I want a bullet proof ring." He turned over his left hand for emphases. Jane snorted and shook her head. "That'd be pretty cool right? Imagine, chasin' down a bad guy, shots are fired and—"

"and he blows your hand off because you're the idiot who thinks a metal band can stop a thirty eight?."

"It could happen." They were both grinning.

"In a parallel universe, Frankie. Save the money."

"Well Nina asked me the other day what I wanted and it's the only thing I could think of that's even worth it y'know?" He reached for a handful of nuts, "End of the day it doesn't really matter I guess. Marrying her…better than a bullet proof ring."

Jane smiled. "You tell her that?" Frankie shook his head. "You have to tell her that."

He nodded, a small grin in place. "Yeah alright, I will."

"Today."

"Alright alright." He chuckled.

"We all like this one, you can't mess it up."

Frankie rolled his eyes. "No pressure at all."

"Well I'm just saying, the Rizzoli's need a win."

Frankie nodded. "Yeah we do."

Jane sat back a little on her stool and let the IPA slush about in her brain some. She was only three quarters of a way through her second beer but this brew was strong, She wasn't drunk by any means but she was really warm all of a sudden. "Maura told me that Pop was gonna sell today." She glanced at her watch. "Well he already did I guess." It was around seven thirty at night. "You hear from him?" Frankie shook his head no. "Me either."

"If I were an estranged father looking to do right by my kids after selling the family business to set them up I'd call them right away."

Jane shook her head. "Now think like an addict."

Frankie's features frowned. "Hey."

Jane shrugged. "Frankie it's what he is, we can't sugar coat it because he taught us how to play ball."

The middle child looked back at his beer knowing she were right. "Alright… I just got a boat load of money, my kids hate me kinda? I guess…. I'm going to the casino."

Jane nodded and slouched forward some. "I hope that's not the case but we'd be putting all of our experience behind the badge aside on a whim."

Frankie nodded slowly. "You think we should call Tommy, see how he's doin?"

Jane thought about it and then nodded firmly. "Yeah."

Frankie sat up and dug into his pocket for his cell phone. "He texted me asking about a tux yesterday,"

Jane made a face, "And you did not think that was alarming on any level?"

Frankie chuckled. "I mean, sure I did but it's Tommy."

"Gimmie the phone."

##

B y nine that night the iffy scattered showers had turned into full on storm with cold winds whipping harshly against windows and doors causing anything that wasn't tied down to be toppled over or whisked away.

Maura had turned the heat in her house on fully and was trying her best not to worry about Jane driving after having a couple of beers in these conditions as she made herself s small snack. She had gotten home from dinner with her biological mother in somewhat of a mood. Everything had been going lovely until the older woman brought up Maura's partnership with MEND. The ME just loved her work at the precinct too much to want to do it full time and Hope being an entrepreneurial woman of the world who had fallen for a crime family boss didn't really like hearing no. It wasn't anything damaging but it had exhausted Maura some. Then the conversation came up of her dating came up and a polite inquiry turned into a whole other conversation about Hope's ideas on the modern man. While Maura always found learning something new about the woman and the way she thought extremely fascinating she really rather just talk about something else

It bothered her that Hope would assume that she were straight. Offended her even.

But why?

She was sure people thought all kinds of things about her, Maura wasn't naïve to the way people looked at her choice of clothing sometimes, or the slightly comatose glazing over the eyes when she got excited about a particular topic of science. For some reason though the thought that Hope would assume something so personal made her fee… Emotional.

The front doorknob rattling brought her out of her thoughts on dinner and she had to laugh as Jane was seemingly thrust into the house by the raging storm. Her only protection from its elements being her BPD wind breaker and an old Red Sox cap that had been sitting on the ground behind the driver's side seat of her unmarked for at least two years now.

"Did you hear?" The detective asked over the wind sucking the door shut with a force that rattled the painting near the entrance. Jane's breath was heavy as if walking uphill for a few miles and tassels of her long black hair stuck to her cheeks artistically.

"Have I heard?"

"The whole world has gone to shit today." Maura watched in amusement as she began peeling off her windbreaker and stepping out of her muddied boots at the entrance. "We have just enough time to pack up George and Ma and get the hell outta here." She tossed her blazer onto the ground and pulled the v-neck she had been wearing over her head revealing a white tank top soaked through.

"It's that bad out there?" Maura asked.

Jane was bent over kicking out of her socks. "Bad? I'm pretty sure the mayor is gonna have to say something on the news, schools might be canceled Maura." She pulled out her weapon, cleared it and put the safety on it before opening the drawer in the hall to put it in the lock box there. Jane unclipped her badge and rested it in the drawer as well before closing it and padding with damp feet over to the woman in the kitchen clad in only a tank top and her clinging work slacks. "You're not going to BCU tomorrow are you?" She asked remembering that Maura would be lecturing now on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The detective leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on Maura's cheek which paused them only a moment. Maura looked up at her and smiled softly. Jane's eyes were big and brown and playful.

"I'll still go in regardless." She answered before offering the detective a small smirk. "How much have you had to drink?"

Jane made a face, "Only two beers, Maura c'mon." She'd never drink and drive. She and Frankie actually sat waiting for the storm to lessen with glasses of water for an hour.

"I had to check, you looked quite glazed." The ME teased.

Jane huffed. "Glazed." She repeated a she walked away secretly smiling. She had been looking forward to seeing the other woman and had been caught. "I'm gonna shower." She announced over her shoulder as she went into the hall closet to grab one of the Tyvek laundry bags there and piled all her wet clothes into it.

"Thank you." Maura chimed glad she wouldn't have to say anything.

"Ma here?"

"She's at Ron's tonight I believe." The doctor went back to what she had been making. Toast with a light layer of apricot jam. Dinner had been lovely but she couldn't really shake wanting something a little sweet with her tea.

Jane huffed as she grabbed her wet socks. "Guy has his own place? Who knew."

"Be nice."

"I am nice. It was only an observation."

Maura shook her head softly. "Have you eaten?"

Jane thought back to the half pretzel and several handfuls of nuts at the bar. "Not really. Isn't it too late?" She let the laundry bag drag behind her as she began up the stairs.

"Yes but I can make you something." Jane paused on the stairs and looked down at her curiously. "Toast and Jam?" Maura motioned her butter knife. "The jam is from Austria, very yummy."

"Sure, thanks." Jane stood there on the middle steps a moment. "You don't have to." She added suddenly. Maura looked up at her. "I can, make it myself y'know." Maura looked tired, and hadn't been sleeping well, and had missed her lunch break today doing over an autopsy for her, she didn't have to make her toast and jam too.

If anything Jane should be the one making her toast and jam at the end of a long day.

"It's nothing Jane." Maura reassured her. "I'm already making myself some."

"Alright but y'know, don't go crazy, just the toast okay?"

Maura chuckled. "Okay."

J ane made her way upstairs and into the guest bedroom where she grabbed a pair of grey sweats that wore lose until hey clung at her ankles, black socks, and a simple black tank top that she couldn't remember bringing over but wasn't about to spend time debating if she owned it or not when she had more pressing things to do. When she got back downstairs she found Maura looking out the window in the kitchen watching the storm. She was barefoot clad in a simple weathered purple shirt and what looked like the softest brown yoga capris in the world

Jane slowed her steps into the kitchen. and smiled a little. She wondered what the other woman could be thinking about but decided to not to ask. Sometimes Maura didn't ask her even when the detective knew for a fact she was wondering. "Kinda nice when you're not in it."

Maura turned suddenly and put a brief hand to her chest before nodding a motioning to the window she had been looking out of. "It is." She turned to the island and let her thoughts adjust to the welcome company of her best friend. "I made you tea as well."

Jane came into the kitchen fully and took the mug already set aside. "Thanks." The liquid was nearly opaque and smelt exotic in ways the detective couldn't quite describe. "This isn't the poop tea right? Really can't handle much more shit right now."

Maura chuckled softly. "It is not, you're safe." She picked up her own mug.

Jane took a noisy sip before nodding. "It's good."

"I mixed it myself, oolong with a hint of coconut and ginger to aid digestion before sleep."

Jane nodded. Between the tea and the sound of the rain outside thrashing against the windows she was certain she'd have no problems sleeping tonight. "You wanna watch a movie?" She could tell before Maura shook her head that the answer was no. There was something slightly off about her tonight. She carried herself just a little heavier and her silence was a true lack of sound instead of the soft reverberation of comfortable energy that usually lived with a woman who could not turn her brain off.

"I think it's a little late for one." Maura leaned back against the island counter and motioned to the plate of toast and jam set on the island beside her. "How is Frankie? Vince?"

Jane picked up and inspected a perfectly cut triangle of toast with the thinnest layer of apricot jam before settling herself at the counter across from Maura. "It was just me and Frankie." She paused and waited for the correction but noted when it didn't come.

"Nina and I had lunch together today, she asked me to be a bridesmaid."

Jane crunched into the toast and chewed happily. "S'really good."

Maura smiled. "The jam right?""

Jane took another bite and impressively finished the piece. She waited to chew her food before nodding. "Both."

"Will Frankie ask you to be in his wedding party?" Jane shrugged as she sipped her tea. "We'd be able to coordinate outfits."

Jane burst out into a warm chuckle, she had made sure to swallow her tea first but still had to wipe the side of her mouth "You look tired as hell, and still all you can think about is coordinating outfits?"

Maura shook her head with a small smile. "I am tired, Jane."

"The rain will help you sleep." She frowned wishing she could do something herself.

"I hope so."

"How was dinner with Bio Mom?"

Maura sighed. "Taxing."

"So that's what's been up." She nodded knowing it had to be something.

"We had a few unexpected disagreements."

Jane's face hardened. "About what?"

Maura waved her off. "I think I may be getting my period." She dismissed. "It's the only thing I can think about that could cause such a hormonal imbalance when it comes to other's opinions that had never bothered me before."

Jane nodded slowly. "She upset you?"

"She wants me to take more responsibility with MEND and she assumed I only date men." Jane raised a brow and Maura chuckled softly. "When I say it out loud it sounds foolish doesn't it?"

Jane smiled. "Well…she's sure in for a surprise when you move to France to write books and marry a French woman in the circus."

Maura smiled back at her. "Oh Jane."

Jane shrugged. "Somehow that's what I always pictured you doing."

Maura let up a small laugh. It made Jane smile even wider. "You're lying."

The detective shrugged and took another sip of her tea. "You not being an ME is okay too y'know."

Maura shook her head. "MEND is stimulating work, it's a challenge, but it… it doesn't come close to the work I am able to do in The Medical Examiner's office."

"What does she want you to do?"

"Chief of Medical Practices."

"Wow."

"It would be an amazing opportunity, but my life is here, my work, my friends, you." They stared at one another a moment. "I think I deserve to…to just be, after everything I've been through and worked for." She shook her head. "She believes I can be more."

"Disagreeing with her about MEND doesn't mean you can't."

Maura smiled at Jane's wisdom. "I know."

The detective took another sip of her tea. "Was the food good at least?"

Maura nodded. "Devine." She chuckled at herself and motioned to the toast and jam. "Although I needed a little something more."

Jane smirked. Maybe she was getting her period. "You just let me know when I have to make another Rosetta's run."

Maura's smile remained. "Soon, very soon."

They finished off their toast points and tea in silence leaning against the counters and just listened to the rain. Maura would catch Jane's gaze every now and then and they'd smile at one another for no other reason than liking the way the other looked when they smiled at them and how it made their stomachs flutter.

"I'm glad you came over tonight, Jane." Maura finally filled the space between them.

"Me too." Jane uncrossed her arms and braced them on the back of the counter as she bit her lip in thought. "Um. Maybe sometime this week I could take you out again…on a date." She nodded for good measure. "Or y'know make you dinner at my place."

Maura raised a brow curiously, a small smirk tucking itself firmly into her cheek denting her dimples. "You can cook?" She teased.

Jane huffed. "Yes, I can cook….some things. Mostly water."

Maura smiled fully. "I would certainly like to see that."

"You don't think I can cook?"

"Jane in our seven years of friendship you've only cooked eggs or burgers in my presence."

"You don't want eggs or burgers?"

"Not for dinner, no."

Jane nodded and re-crossed her arms to her chest. "Alright." She would have to look something up. Asking her mother would only set off alarms. "I'm honestly offended, Maura."

Maura laughed lightly and pushed herself off the counter and took three steps forward so she were in Jane's space. "I would love for you to make me dinner, it's a very kind thought, my apologies for offending the chef."

Jane grinned. "Apology accepted." She uncrossed her arms. "So, Thursday? I can make dinner and you can bring over all the New York stuff you keep sending to my email."

Her face shifted immediately. "So you do see them then?"

Jane chuckled. "Maura I'm running around catching bad guys all day. Responding to your emails would be another forty hour work week." The ME crossed her arms and Jane chuckled and pulled at them. "Hey."

Maura let her pull her arms away from her chest. "I could just stop sending them."

Jane held her right wrist loosely with her left hand and pulled at it softly. "No c'mon." They're arms moved still, playing a small game of owner before gingerly lacing their fingers together. "I do read them—"

"Do you?"

Jane nodded. "Eventually…"

Maura could feel her cheeks flushed at their hands joining but continued her feigned tone of disapproval. "I'm not believing you."

Jane smirked and pulled her a little closer by the hand again. "Believe me." She widened her eyes for effect and pushed out her bottom lip just so.

Maura chuckled. "We'll see."

"Thursday night?"

Maura nodded. "Can I bring anything?"

"No I got it, you already do so much for me. I'll handle everything."

Maura took the final step into Jane's space causing the taller woman to separate her legs some to accommodate her. "It's because I care about you, Jane."

The detective straighter her posture some and let her right hand touch the ME's side. Her heart began to thud in her chest causing her breathing to become just audible. "I care about you too, Maura." Jane glanced at her lips and then to Maura's eyes again. The two leaned in at the exact same time pressing their lips together in a soft kiss that was short and sweet and so clearly not really enough. A brief hesitation followed; the vulnerability of it just heavy enough to tip the scale in either direction. They kissed again, this time both taking a moment longer to sigh into the other before separating somewhat breathless.

There was an irrefutable energy sparked by that second kiss; a tickling of every cell in their bodies that grew to a molecular impatience of sorts. A yearning.

Jane followed Maura's face cutely. "So, Thursday?"

The ME chuckled, a bright blush at her cheeks. "Yes." She moved away from Jane to fuss over reheating water for their tea. "It's a date, Jane."

Jane grinned. "I'm not making escargot."

Maura huffed in amusement without turning to her. "It's my favorite you know."

Jane frowned. Was it? Since when? Where in the hell was she gonna get snails in this weather? She wasn't an expert but she doubted it were the season for them. Did snails have a season?

Maura's smile spread to her dimples as she watched Jane began the dishes from her toast preparations with a creased brown and a very adorable worry line on her face. "Jane." The detective looked over her shoulder. "They're delicious but not my favorite nor are they necessary."

Jane nodded. "So what do you you wanna eat?"

Maura shrugged. "Surprise me. I'm easy." Jane narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "I suppose I could give you a list of things that I suspect my body may have acute anaphylactic responses to. Would that be helpful?"

Jane chuckled and shook her head slowly. "Why don't you email it to me." Maura gave her a look. "Maura c'mon." She immediately course corrected when the doctor didn't laugh. "I read them. I do."

"You do not, Jane."

"I do!"

"What is the last one I sent you?"

"What is the last one you sent me… To my email?"

"Yes." Maura crossed her arms.

"It's…um…Was…About that thing you were telling me about…. That other thing?" Jane tried. "About mammals." She nodded firmly. It was always about mammals, anyway right? On some level…

Jane watched in surprise as Maura picked up her tea mug having just refreshed it and left the kitchen without another word. Jane opened her mouth to say something but found she couldn't. It was only after checking her email and reading the last one from Maura that she laughed hard.

" _ **Amazing new scientific discovery leads researches to believe Sea Mammals may be able to communicate…."**_

Jane sat amongst the storm late that night, drinking cooled tea and reading articles from the small screen of her cell phone until she found herself squinting. With her head full of facts and chest full of appreciation the detective made sure all the doors were locked on the first floor before climbing the stairs to crawl into the guestroom bed.

 **AN: So apologies for the mega late post for that I decided to post a mega long chapter :) Hope you enjoy and as always please review!**

 **KathleenDee**


	19. Chapter 19

"Those are really great."

Jane looked up from the frozen bag of kimchi dumplings in her hand, the ones she had been staring at for four full minutes. The voice that had interrupted her belonged to a shorter woman with greying red hair and a plump heart shaped face. Her smile was soft and her features so wrinkled you couldn't really tell if she were just being polite or if she genuinely loved you like her own from sight.

Jane didn't really like talking to people in grocery stores. What was there to talk about really? She supposed it stemmed from her mother talking to literally everyone they crossed paths with as children. This woman seemed well meaning though, she was currently putting bags of frozen peas into her cart. Soup for her grandchildren?

The detective pivoted slightly on her left foot to face the other woman. "Yeah?" She asked finally motioning to the bag. It was eight thirty on Wednesday night, just having left work mentally drained Jane didn't really have the capacity to make solid decisions on her own, this was important though. "I can't really cook." She admitted with a soft chuckle. The basics sure, but if she were honest she wanted to impress Maura.

The older woman laughed too. "Oh you don't need to _cook_ those, just steam them, that simple. Or you can fry them up with a little ginger."

Jane turned the bag over to the back. "They don't have any weird synthetic chemicals, right?" She couldn't tell.

The older woman looked slightly confused for a moment. "…Like MSG?"

Jane looked back at her. "Yeah…" They stared at one another for a moment. "My um, friend she's kinda sensitive to that stuff…"

The woman smiled. "Oh."

More silence.

Jane looked back to the package, they seemed pretty tasty, at least by the picture, and judging by the laughable portion size per container she supposed that had be an indicator of quality, right? "I'm sure it's fine." She tossed the bag into her basket and grabbed three more. "Um so… you think ginger would be good?"

The grandmother nodded confidently now. "A little garlic, a little ginger…"

Jane nodded committing it to memory. "And I just steam it?"

"Or fry it."

"Do I need a sauce?"

"If you'd like dear, they're quite good on their own but a little soy..oh."

"What?"

"Does your friend eat soy?"

Jane furrowed a brow. "She drinks soy milk…" Was that the same?

The older woman waved her off. "Then you're fine." She grabbed a hold of her shopping cart and began to push it forward.

"Wait where's that other stuff?"

"The garlic and ginger?" Jane nodded quickly. "In the basement."

Jane smiled in thanks and then looked around her slightly overwhelmed by the organic food giant's store layout. "There's a basement?" Maura shopped here frequently, this and the green market on Saturdays, but today was Wednesday, and Jane was finally able to steal a moment alone in the market parking lot to look up some recipes online.

She'd made Maura little things in the past but now as she wandered her way around the colossal specialty foods market she realized she had never really made her a proper meal, actually she was pretty certain that she had fixed her a bowl of cereal last, that was a few months ago.

That was not how things were going to operate moving forward she decided.

After finding the escalator to the basement Jane grabbed a sleeve of garlic and a knob of ginger to add to her basket. She decided maybe she'd be adventures and try the fresh berry salad for desert she saw and plus if Maura did stay over she'd have something she'd like to eat in the morning.

Was Maura going to stay over?

Jane stood in front of the little green containers of blueberries and considered it. She'd need all her toiletries, right? Those little napkins for her face to take off her makeup, that weird water pick thing for her teeth… This store didn't have those things did it? Her apartment sure as hell didn't. Jane let herself wander again into the self-care and hygiene section of the store where the homemade soaps and smelly mineral oils lined the walls a plenty. She watched a woman gab something confidently and continue down the aisle as if this product was needed and no other. That confidence had to mean it was a necessity…

The detective waited for the woman to exit the aisle completely before walking over to the product and raising a brow. "It's…soap?" She wondered aloud. "What the hell is a body lather?" A body wash or a lotion? Jane added that and a few other random items that weren't atrociously priced before leaving the aisle and checking her list over.

##

Maura stepped aside quickly to let Jane in from out of the bitter cold morning. "Good Morning." She chuckled as the tall woman shrugged herself out of her heavy winter coat while making a B-line for the coffee pot in the kitchen. Maura closed the door

"It's almost April Maura, what the hell is going on?"

Maura stepped into the kitchen. She was still in her silken pajamas. "Well we had a particularly humid fall, climate change and precipitation patterns indicate—"

Finally warmed by her first sip of coffee Jane lowered her mug and shook her head. "Not literally."

Maura nodded. "Please specify."

Jane looked around with a small grin in place before noticing her mother was no where in sight. "Where's Ma?"

Maura came around to pick up her small cup of tea and take a sip. "She spent the night at Ron's—"

"Again?"

Maura nodded "It appears things are getting serious."

Jane huffed but then smiled a little when she realized they were alone like they would be later today. Yesterday the day had been filled with so much of everyone else. She hadn't spent the night and she had hardly seen Maura during the day due to the ME's meetings and the travel necessary to re-visit both park crimes scenes. Last night she had actually stayed rather late at the precinct. She was able to walk Maura to her car but aside from that they hadn't had much in the way of conversation.

"How come you're not dressed yet?" She narrowed her eyes. "I'm still driving you right?"

Maura rested her tea down and tilted her head. "Well I hardly had a moment to remind you when you were bulldozing into my home for coffee."

"That you made for me." Jane pointed to her cup of tea.

Maura shrugged but smiled at her quick observation. "It's simply out of habit now." Jane or Angela or Tommy or Frankie or Ron, someone would be by for coffee, and Maura put stock in always being a ready host.

Jane brought her mug to her mouth and then pulled it away when she remembered finally why else today was different than most other days this week. "Damnit, you're going o BCU today right?"

"Yes, I'll be working from home for a few hours and then heading their for our adjunct meeting and then will be back at BPD after lunch." She stepped around to the chairs at the kitchen island where one of her briefcases sat. "Did you not receive my text message?' She pulled out a crisp folder and handed it Jane across the island.

"Nah.." Jane read the cover distractedly. "We were at The Robber after work late, must have not gone through— What's this?"

"That." Maura began as she carefully clasped the briefcase closed and returned for her tea. "Is the study I ordered on the alkaline components of the soil samples we found under both Hanover and Turner's nails."

Jane had placed the folder on the counter and was flipping through the pages way too quickly to be really absorbing anything. How could she anyway when every other word had five syllables and there were graphs she didn't even know existed. "Do you have one in English?"

Maura shook her head with amusement. "That is English, Jane."

Jane looked up at her impatiently. "Well what's it all mean, Doc?"

"It means that the dirt under Hanover's nails and the dirt found under Turner's nails are a definitive match. They are from the same source, the same location." She came over to where Jane was standing and pointed at a graph. "Interestingly enough Hanover's sample, here." She pointed to another area. "Shows a distinct level of microbiological activity." Jane looked at her. "It means there were higher levels of present yeast, fungal spores…"

Jane began to nod as she returned to the graphs now trying to draw the same conclusion herself. "Alright so… they were kept in the same place." She turned a page. "But maybe he had her somewhere warm… and maybe he had Turner in a different area." She shook her head and looked down at Maura to her right. "Maur we could be looking at multiple locations, in the same location."

"He'd have to have a means of transportation to leave them in parks."

"Strong enough to carry the bodies too. Alive or dead bodies aren't light." Jane nodded. "My guess is some sketchy ass van, it always is, but you'd be surprised how many people actually own them in the city of Boston."

"Too many to pool for suspects?"

"Yeah, and not to mention that's profiling, if we did find the right guy the defense would throw us out of court before we could sit down."

"Have you given any thought to the significance of parks yet?"

Jane closed the folder. "Could be a childhood thing, could just be a vessel of opportunity. No one really patrols them, uniforms sometimes do but only the larger parks and that's only for horny teenagers and the vocational bum."

"Perfect place to get BPD's attention."

Jane nodded. "Yeah." She picked up the folder. "Can I have this?"

Maura nodded. "Of course… Have you eaten?"

Jane motioned to her cup of coffee. "I'll grab something on the way in, I have a feeling we're looking at the whole thing a little too simply."

Maura nodded. "There is a Book Club meeting tonight." Jane leaned her palm on the counter to face her. "I'm not saying I'd rather spend the evening there—"

"You're saying that if I think I won't be able to make it because I'm still trying to figure out what these graphs say then let you know earlier rather than later."

"They aren't impossible to read, Jane." The ME let up a small laugh. "But yes, that is what I'm trying to communicate."

Jane couldn't decide if she felt hurt or amused. The Homicide Detective couldn't blame Maura for putting her foot down on the matter. Who would want to get all excited about something only to be let down and not be aloud to really express her disappointed out of guilt? Jane didn't want that, she understood it, but she certainly didn't want Maura to not be able to express herself. So she smiled softly and filed her handful of insecurities away on the matter for the time being. "I wanna make you dinner, Maura." Jane nodded seriously. "I'll let you know if things progress with this though."

"That's all I ask."

"You're not going to be mad if we raincheck?"

"Appropriately disappointed I think." She thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, but never upset."

"Maybe just a little secondary?" Jane pushed.

"Perhaps. But I'm sure it will be fleeting. Jane you have a major responsibility to the people you serve. It's selfless, and I understand that there will be times when that means other aspects of your life must be put on hold. With the Medical Examiner's office there is no difference." She touched her arm. "This wouldn't be the first time we've rescheduled something because of our joint responsibilities mind you."

Jane nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah but, it's not like we were just gonna hang out or anything like before… Now it's like… Y'know." She wanted to make the time for them to figure everything out. The other night after Sunday dinner had been really… nice.

Maura rubbed her arm and then returned it to her mug of tea. "We'll manage."

It was simple and sure, Jane decided to take Maura's stance as well. "alright." She grabbed the folder up again. "I gotta go."

Maura nodded. "Do not forget to see Kent when you get in. He emailed me some results from hair samples that I didn't have time to print out."

"Thanks for this." She motioned to the folder before taking a rather large and final gulp of her coffee and resting her empty mug on the counter. "I'll talk to you later." She began to leave when Maura agreed but then paused half way toward the door and turned back to quickly place her mug in the sink and touch Maura's shoulder before leaning over it and pressing a small kiss on her cheek. "Bye." She hovered there only a second more, just enough time for Maura to reach her hand up behind her to touch her cheek. They looked at one another a moment longer before Maura tip toed up only to have Jane move away slightly.

"I'm not going to be able to think straight today if you kiss me."

Maura's confusion was quickly cast aside for a round laugh that colored the tips of her ears and made Jane smile widely in return. "Jane."

"It's the truth." She waved the folder in her hand some. "I have graphs to decipher!"

Maura's laugh turned into a fond smile as she patted Jane's shoulder. "Goodbye, Jane."

##

She walked into the Blackwell building for the first time since the shooting near grinning when she saw her friend and colleague Professor Erin Dooely.

"Doctor." Maura greeted.

"Doctor" Erin gave Maura a once over with a small laugh. "Well it's positively frigid and here you are as radiate as ever ready to build a curriculum on arguably one of the most boring subjects voted by the general student population. I'm not exactly certain if you are passionate or clinical."

Maura smiled. "Arguments have been made for both I'm sure." She couldn't help being in a good mood after the morning she had had.

Erin motioned to the elevator. "We'll be late if we don't hurry. Have you eaten? Had coffee?"

"Yes yes I have. Are we meeting with the—" She paused when she noticed the elevator. Somehow words escaped her train of thought and she was jolted back to the last time she had been in it.

Erin looked between her and elevator. "Oh…. Have you not been back on campus? Weren't there evaluations done by—"

Maura shook her head quickly and stepped forward bravely. "My department conducted psychological evaluations for clearance, there was no need to attend one of the university level." She nodded as they entered the elevator.

Erin nodded and came in behind her. "I'm sure the dean is going to want to address it today. Most of the student's encountered Miles on some level, he wants to create an action plan for the building as well.

Maura nodded. "It all sounds worth of practice given what could have happened here."

Erin pressed the button to take them to floor five where the meeting would be held in a stuff room wih poor air circulation and minimal natural light. "You know when I met Detective Rizzoli I wasn't quite sure of what to make of her." Erin looked over at Maura. "She's quite remarkable it seems."

Maura smiled. "Yes, Jane has been a dear friend of mine for some time now."

##

When the doorbell rang several hours later Jane was in the process of grabbing up a pile of laundry on the floor in her room. She hesitated at the sound before deciding to toss it into her closet. The doorbell rang a second time as she was trying to close its sliding door but had to stop to push the clothes back in after they tumbled out each time. "C'mon guys.." She pleaded with the pair of mismatched socks and hoody that just wouldn't stay put.

She had vacuumed, adjusted pillows, wiped down counters, did what little chopping prep need needed for dinner, opened some wine and put it to chill and showered. Jane checked her cell phone for the time and quickly made her way down the stairs to the front door. She had all these butterflies in her chest she didn't know what to do with and only seemed to multiply the closer it got to eight that night which was when she and Maura agreed to meet. After pulling together more legal documents for a search warrant of a few suspicious characters with criminal histories who worked for the docks and who would have access to a large warehouse units like supervisors, Jane and the team combed through both victim's financial history again, this time finding only a series of checks beginning to be deposited into their accounts the last few weeks of their lives. The checks seemed to just be able to cover automatic billing cycles and upon further digging apparently came from an ex-husband and a close friend who she was to interview tomorrow morning. If Frankie seemed curious about her needing to leave early he never said.

"Hello."

"Hi." Jane smiled as she stepped aside to let Maura in. "Didn't even know I had a doorbell till now." She joked. The ME was wearing her favorite red overcoat and a navy romper that stopped mid-thigh and had it's various frills, and heels. "You look nice." Her makeup was done lightly and her hair down cascading shades of honey onto her shoulders.

Maura smiled. "Thank you…I didn't dress up too much right?" She chuckled softly at herself knowing it took way too long to decide what she was going to wear once she got the call that they were in fact on for tonight. "I brought wine." She motioned to the bottle in her hands as she stepped out of her heels and shrunk a good two inches.

Jane closed the door behind her and reached for her coat and the bottle. "No no I don't think so." She looked down to what she were wearing: a simple pair of her "nice" jeans and a short sleeve button down. "I…kinda just put on something."

"You ironed your shirt." Maura pointed out.

Jane chuckled only mildly embarrassed that it was something to notice. "I did." After hanging her coat she held onto the wine bottle with both hands and waited for Maura to put her bag down. "Look um, I may get called in." She didn't want this night to be ruined by something they both knew was a strong possibility, but she wanted to clear the air on the conversation they had this morning first and foremost. "I'd have to go, if that happens."

Maura nodded. "You've been very clear on your intentions." She supposed this would be one of those new things they'd have to manage.

Jane nodded. "You do a lot for me, my family…" Her father calling her _some woman_ had really resonated with her she supposed. She wasn't just some best friend, she was _her_ best friend, the best she ever had actually and now with this new closeness, well she just wanted Maura to know she appreciated her for who she was in all aspects of their lives. "and…" Maura raised a brow. "I wanted to be able to not worry about y'know Ma walking in or…. Pre-publishing."

Maura let up a small laugh. "Privacy, you wanted some privacy." It was true, their time spent together had a new category. Unfortunately there hadn't been any hours added to the day to accommodate it.

"Yeah but not to do anything y'know….not like that. I mean" Jane began to blush. "I mean— you know what I mean?"

Maura's laugh turned smile. "I do." Jane was nervous and it was very cute to see the usually confident woman so worrisome over the things she said. Maura had been her best friend for years now, of course she understood what Jane meant, still it was very sweet that she felt the need to clarify

Jane laughed at herself some and motioned to the wine. "It's not going to work for tonight so I'm gonna save it."

This peeked the pathologist's interest. "A wine paring too?"

Jane nodded as she went into the kitchen with bottle and put it aside. "It's red right?"

"One of the wines we had that I'm getting in New York from that distributor. Oh!" She reached for her purse and pulled out a small tablet. "I also brought the New York Itinerary. I figure I could dictate while you cooked."

Jane nodded. "That sounds good." She brought the white wine out of her fridge as Maura brought the tablet over to the counter and peered onto Jane's side curiously where a cutting board had already been set up and some ingredients lay.

"Ginger and garlic?"

"And this thing." Jane showed her the wine before pulling the cork and pouring it. "Was almost forty dollars, you believe that?"

Maura hummed as she watched Jane pour two healthy glasses of the golden liquid. "Alsatian Pinot Gris tends to be up there but they actually are some of the most vivacious white wines. Well done."

Jane put the cork back in the bottle after pouring. "Beats me. The kid at the wine shop on Court said it would work with what I was making."

"And what are you making?" She laughed as Jane visibly became excited.

"So we're gonna have bok choy sauted with ginger and garlic, some kimchi dumplings with some hoisin carrot sauce thing."

"Wow." Maura nodded clearly impressed.

"And!" Jane put a finger up and ducked into the oven to grab the shrimp wrapped in seaweed that had been meant for an appetizer. "To start."

Maura couldn't stop smiling. "I'm very impressed you knew where the vegetable section was." She motioned to the large amount of bok choy sitting on the counter. "Though, it isn't too far from the beer section so then again…" She could already tell from the paper bag sitting aside for scraps that Jane had gone to her favorite market to get the ingredients.

Jane smiled as she began traying up the little sea wraps. "I needed assistance let me tell you."

"Aw Jane. You really did put a lot of thought into this. Thank you."

"I mean I know it's not really cooking cooking like you do but y'know you didn't want eggs or burgers, and I ran out of cereal this morning…" She shrugged.

Maura took a sip of her wine and watched Jane for only a moment before reaching over for a warm wrap and smiling at the burst of flavors in her mouth. "Mm."

"They good?" Jane watched her face change as she closed her eyes to enjoy the bite. "They look really slimly…" She wanted to look at the picture on the box again but with the way Maura reached for a second one immediately she supposed it had been done right.

"Devine. Where did you go for these?" She accepted the napkin passed to her. They weren't from Whole Fruits that was for sure. There was a subtle yet detectible sugary after taste she knew came from lesser quality preservatives, but the flavors of the seaweed and the garlic were so pronounced.

"Can't tell you." Jane grinned smugly. She and the little old lady had crossed paths again at check out and she was telling Jane a few other local stores that had some fun products. Anyway she was certain if she did tell Maura it came from an ice box close to a live bucket of some kind of fermenting sea animal she'd probably pass out.

Jane didn't think going to the hospital after every other date was a sustainable trend.

Maura took another sip of her wine before putting her hands up jokingly. "Yes fine, intellectual property?" They were tasty, she'd give Jane that.

"Yup."

"I won't ask again."

"Don't." Jane went into the fridge to start to grab the baby carrots and the hoisin sauce and orange juice to start cooking. The sauce would take the longest, so it needed to be on first. "So when are we going to New York again?"

"Jane."

"Wha? I've been a little y'know? Preoccupied." She emptied the bag of baby carrots into a small sauce pot that already had some water and melted butter in it. "…Right, then the juice…" She mumbled to herself as she read the receipt she had printed out and taped to the counter earlier.

"In nine days, Jane."

Jane turned around. "Nine Days?"

"Yes."

The detective nodded a few times and then looked elsewhere. "Huh…"

"You didn't buy your ticket yet did you?"

Jane looked at her carefully and Maura raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "….No."

"Unbelievable."

"C'mon, Maur—"

"—You'll be lucky if you get the same flight. Which I doubt and it's going to cost you a fortune, which hopefully makes you learn your lesson" She shook her head and began tapping away at her tablet. "If I didn't book your room would you have even done that?"

"Probably not." That earned a particular look from Maura that Jane didn't mind not seeing ever again. "I'm in the middle of a double homicide potential serial killer, Maur. Cut me a little slack."

"You agreed to the trip before you got this case." She pointed out. "That evening I have to be at the conference's opening event. I am speaking remember? Tasha will be there."

Jane sagged her shoulders and came over to the counter to look at what Maura was doing on the small screen. "I can always drive up?" She offered feeling bad. She didn't remember that Maura was speaking. "You'd only land a couple hours before I get in."

"That may be what has to happen looking at these flights." Maura commented distractedly.

Jane frowned. "Or I'll just pay whatever, it's only to New York, it can't be that bad." She turned to manage the flame on the carrots before turning back to the counter and placing both hands on its surface. "Let me see." Maura rotated the tablet to face her and leaned over to point at a few options. "That won't work, when does your conference thingy start?"

"Seven sharp. I'm the opening speaker."

"Do I have to wear a dress?" Maura gave her a look. "What?"

"How about you book a ticket and then we can talk at all." She wasn't livid, just not pleased. Jane was determined to turn the evening around though so she nodded.

"Alright alright. Hand me my wallet?"

Maura got up from her stool and brought her glass of wine with her to the end table near the door where she knew one of Jane's off duty fire arms was kept out of a lock box (but strapped to the underside of the table securely). The end table itself housed her keys, pocket knife, and her wallet. "You aren't bringing your gun are you?" She asked as she flipped the worn brown leather open and regarded the imagine on Jane's driver's license before looking for her credit card.

Jane was scrolling through the list of flight options. "Yeah… Probably."

"Where are your clearance papers?" She brought over the wallet and handed Jane the credit card she knew she liked to use for traveling points and then pulled out a handful of receipts. "And why are you keeping receipts from two months ago?" She shook her head and sighed as Jane distractedly took the card.

"Under my bed…" Jane selected a one-way flight. "Alright look. I get on a lfight at three and then I'm there by four thirty, into JFK." She looked up at Maura who was freeing the bulging leather of its weight in random receipts with a look of distress on her face. "Maur I'm not gonna be able to find anything if you do that."

"I'm surprised you can find anything at all in here." She placed another old receipt onto the small pile accumulating on the counter.

"I'll clean it out tomorrow."

Maura looked up. "When you bring out your concealed carry-on clearance papers and your passport?"

Jane grabbed for her wallet. "Yes yes, all that, Doctor."

"Jane."

"I promise!" She grinned finally standing upright from leaning on the counter. "When is your flight?"

"I leave in the morning."

Jane motioned to the tablet. "Is that a good one?"

"If you are delayed because of this weather it will be cutting it close." She sat back down at the island and turned the tablet toward her. "Yes, you'll miss lunch with Tasha, and won't have time to really settle in but.…"

Jane turned back to the stove where the carrots were rolling around in the pot cooking. She looked down at the taped recipe before opening a cabinet for the salt and black pepper it called for. " You guys get all your nerding out done before I get there, and we're having dinner with her after right?"

Maura nodded and began filling in Jane's information to book the flight as she sipped her wine. "I don't understand how someone so meticulous about some things can be so unorganize— Do you want an inflight snack-plus option?"

Jane turned. "Um… no we are going to eat after right? Remember that questions I just asked you? Like two second ago?"

"Well I am the opening speaker Jane, I'm expected to linger after everything and mingle with this year's other conference panelists."

Jane furrowed a brow. "How long does that take?"

The ME thought about it. "An hour or two?" She nodded.

"An hour or two!? What are you guys doing, planning a new nuclear deal?"

"Actually interestingly enough The Defense Threat Reduction Agency standar—"

"Forget the meal. I'll stop by The Robber and get a burger or something before I head to the airport."

Maura nodded. "Probably best, I don't need one of my guests passing out due to starvation." She didn't put it past the detective. When Jane was hungry all bets were off when it came to the dramatics.

A few minutes passed in silence.

"Maybe add it anyway…"

"I already did."

Jane chuckled as she turned back to the stove. "Look see now we are all booked up okay?"

"Did you take off from work?"

"Yes, I took off from work." She sighed.

"When is you FBI psychological evaluation?"

"Tuesday, Noon." Jane turned back to the counter to take a sip of her wine before moving to cleaning the bok choy. "This stuff said it was already washed but y'know after reading that article my best friend sent me on the poor water conditions in the areas where most American greens are processed, I'm gonna wash them again."

Maura smirked. "You're hopping by leaning against something you know I was previously disappointed in you for not accomplishing you can take attention away from the fact that you waited until less than a week and a half to book your plane ticket to New York?"

Jane glanced over her shoulder at her. "Is it working?"

Maura shook her head while smiling as she dipped her glass for another sip. "Go on…"

The Detective grinned. "Honestly though, now I know what it must feel like to be you, all this information in the ol' nogin'."

"It's exhausting isn't it?"

Jane's smile faltered just a little. "Well… yeah actually. I don't know how you do it."

Maura looked down at the tablet as it processed Jane's ticket. "I've always thought this way." She put her wine down to safely tuck the red credit card back into the slot of Jane's open wallet where she found it.

Jane glanced at her as she moved the greens to a cutting board to prep them to be sauted. "How have you been sleeping?"

"Better." Maura nodded.

"You don't know what it was?"

"Can I hypothesis?"

"Please."

"I think it was possibly psychosomatic."

"You just stressing about things maybe?"

"There is a little of that yes." She watched Jane cutting the greens. "When you stayed over I think I felt…safer for some reason. Those nights I had no trouble at all." They looked at one another for a quiet moment.

Jane went back to her cutting but wore a small yet thoughtfully smile. "Hm."

"Anyway." Maura waved. "Tell me about your day."

Jane shared the case developments, and then her small list of things she wanted to do and see while in New York. Maura beamed at the notion of sharing lists and pulled out a list of her own that she had been preparing. Jane nodding along as she sauted the ginger and garlic down before adding handfuls of bok choy. When she was satisfied with the amount she turned and leaned on the counter separating them to watch Maura continue to read off her "must visit" museums and the featuring exhibits and their times, and if they had special ticket prices they'd need to consider, and if it rained what would they do about lunch because most of the museums apparently didn't have many appealing dining options, except for the Museum of Modern Art, Maura wanted cocktails and small bites at it's in house restaurant accurately named The Modern, and maybe they'd want to bring umbrellas but it would be more likely to snow if anything… Jane just smiled. This didn't at all feel weird like she was afraid it would, it felt like old times yet somehow more special.

"—Guggenheim is closed on Thursday's but if we can get a late breakfast and head there on Wednesday then I think we will have enough time to walk the Highline later—"

"Well, Maur honestly as long as we get to spend the time together I'm good with whatever." Jane found herself saying. She checked her level of wine and shrugged.

Maura put her tablet down and smiled. "You've made the trip."

Jane blushed faintly. "c'mon."

"I mean it Jane." She nodded. "When I was in Paris all I could think about was what you'd like about it, what you'd want to eat…" She laughed at herself now because it did sound silly aloud, but it had been the truth. "I missed you." They stared at each other again for a moment not believing that they were here and secretly wondering if the other were thinking the same thing.

"I missed you too." Jane admitted. "Especially with the way you left things." She reached for her glass to take small careful sip.

The bottle didn't last long.

Maura laughed loudly up at Jane who was standing on the sofa beside her holding her Guitar Hero guitar controller and grinning while hitting a triple point score by nailing the iconic guitar solo. "Where are you Maur?" She taunted.

"You're cheating!" Maura hit her leg back into place with one hand as she tried to study the time signature of the Led Zeppelin song while pressing each note carefully on the neck of the guitar much slower than that of Jane's expert mode pace. Jane lifted her left leg again and pushed her socked foot into Maura's carefully coordinated hands. "Jane!"

"Wha!?" Maura grabbed her foot. "Ah!" she jumped up and down for a second regaining her balance moments later before focusing on the screen to regain her rhythm. On the split screen beside her Maura was quickly catching up to her in points. It was then that just out of the corner of her eyes she saw Maura stand. "What are you doing?" The ME glanced over her shoulder innocently up at her before quickly walking in front of the screen blocking the notes from Jane's view. "Maura!"

"I just can't really see from there." She lied as she focused on the screen quickly trying to make up the lost points while Jane was at a disadvantage. The song scrapped and picked along for several measures before Jane was at her side pushing to stand in front of her.

"Move."

"No!" They laughed as they continued to struggle to stand in front of the other all while trying to finish the song. "Jane this is not how you show me how to play a game!" Maura protested between laughing and trying to catch her breath as the detective backed up with her standing right behind her forcing her back until she fell onto the couch. Maura spitefully reached for the back of Jane's shirt and yanked her backwards till she crashed onto the couch beside her guitar still in hand.

Moments after the song ended they sat there breathless watching the score screen declare it a tied match. Jane glanced to her left at Maura's red face grinning still.

"You are quite possibly the worst sore loser Jane. It's embarrassing" She let the guitar in her lap rest on the ground before flopping backward onto the sofa and laughing softly somewhat dazed at the pure energy expended in a three-minute and forty two second long song.

Jane hadn't stopped looking at her though, she couldn't speak like she wanted to, she couldn't laugh at them like she wanted to. It was as if her entire being had suddenly been rendered paralyzed by her feelings for her best friend, held captive by her beauty.

Jane Rizzoli couldn't remember the last time she was this happy, it was sobering.

Maura had caught her gaze and felt herself immediately engulfed by the same feeling she could see in Jane's warm brown eyes. It scared her, but she dare not look away, not for a second. Jane finally sat up and paused before leaning over closer to her and bringing her left hand up to graze the Maura's jaw.

Suddenly they were resting their foreheads gently against the others, shy, but knowing moments elapsed until finally Jane leaned forward and kissed her hard, as if to ask a question.

Maura nodded when they separated even more dazed than before.

Their lips met again with a strangled urgency; the guitar controller that had been in Jane's lap slipped from between them and rattled onto the ground in front of them without much concern as their bodies slid closer and their hands moved to embrace the other.

Jane exhaled through her nose not at all ready for the trail of tingly sensations that followed behind Maura's hands as they wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her closer until the ME's back rested on the arm of the couch. Their lips slowed their dance into a agonizingly exchange that left both woman unable to think about anything else but the other woman's movements, her smell, her touch. Better than the wine it threw them both into a place of complete and utter intoxication with the sensation of experiencing the present.

Jane couldn't stop herself from pushing Maura back suddenly so her back pressed into the seat of the couch and their legs fell under them automatically tangled with the other. Their mouths opened then deepening the kiss and causing Jane to make a soft noise of appreciation and Maura to tremble at the scratchy sensation of the denim of Jane's jeans brushing against her bare thigh. Mistaking it for a chill Jane wrapped both her arms around her and held her close effectively pressing their hips together and causing the woman underneath her to tremble still. Maura's eyes stung with emotion as she brought her hand to Jane's face and kissed her back gentler now; relishing in the added weight of their bodies pinned together in such a tender way. Everything suddenly became unbelievably fragile. Jane held her like she didn't want to let her go, and Maura hadn't realized she had never experienced being such a necessity to anyone in her entire life until just now, not like this.

The kiss was slow to still, but it eventually did, and the small sound of Maura sniffling caused Jane to open her eyes to wide pools of glossy hazel and green searching her face. Jane felt her breath catch itself as she tried to slow her own heart down. She wanted to say so much, share so much of herself just then that she choked on her words. "W..Mau…?"

Maura smiled softly and brought a hand away from Jane's shoulder up to wipe at the invisible moisture at her face. "I'm sorry." She breathed; her voice heavy. "I… Must have…"

Jane could only stare. "… No." She managed, but it hadn't been what she meant to say at all.

"Perhaps we should." Maura exhaled and began to blush. "Slow down."

Jane nodded. "Okay."

"Right?" The way this felt… Stopping seemed so wrong.

Jane seemed just as torn. "I think so…" She frowned then. Would she be able to express what she was feeling without fumbling over herself? She had never wanted a woman this bad, never felt like this ever about anyone… Jane sat uo and moved aside off of her best friend and to the far corner of the couch to give Maura room to sit up. Had she done something wrong? Jane suddenly felt too ashamed to ask.

"Excuse me." Maura said as she stood and made her way quickly to Jane's restroom down the hall. Jane watched her leave before running a hand down her face and sighing heavily.

"Fuck…" She muttered.

This was one of those rare life situations where Jane Rizzoli wanted to just pause time and go find an answer, she'd ask anyone, her mother, her father, the mailman, someone somewhere had to know what to say.

When the pathologist returned she looked just as lost but determined to understand something about herself. "I think I should call it a night, Jane." She announced before fully coming into the living room again.

Jane stood quickly. "I…You could stay.." She shook her head. "I mean I made up the guest room….and bought… stuff."

Maura smiled. "I'd prefer to go."

Jane nodded because she didn't know what else to do. "Okay." They wordlessly moved about her apartment; Jane packing Maura some leftovers because honestly she didn't know what to do with her hands and she had grown up seeing her mother always sending someone away with food, and Maura gathering her tablet and her other belongings. When she checked her phone she had a missed call from Hope. She'd need to call her back tomorrow at some point. Maura let herself fall into the safety of making mental lists as she slipped her heels on.

Finally, they were at the door.

"I hope I didn't…-" Jane began. "Maura, I'm sorry if—"

Maura shook her head quickly "You didn't, don't be."

Jane nodded, not really sure she believed her. "Here." She handed her the paper bag with the leftovers inside. "I saved some of the uncooked tops of the bok choy for George."

Maura took the bag with a polite smile in thanks. "He'll love them."

There was an awkward pause.

Jane put her hands at her hips and nodded. "Will you text me when you get in?"

Maura nodded. "I will. Thank you for the lovely evening."

"Course." Jane reached around her to open the door for her. "Y'know it was kinda fun…cooking."

"It was delicious."

Another pause.

"Goodnight, Jane." There was a silent request for space to which Jane nodded to in agreement.

"Night, Maura."

Maura took the first step out with some difficulty, but it seemed every other step after became more graceful than the last, and by the time she were at the bottom of the stoop she was moving quickly and efficiently down the sidewalk toward her own home a few blocks away. Jane waited till she was out of sight before closing the door and letting out a big breath of air.

What just happened?


	20. Chapter 20

_**Home.**_

Jane stared at the screen of her cell phone while she lay above the covers in bed. Maura usually never added any more nor any less when she were letting the detective know she was home safe, but tonight the single word text message seemed so… Distant.

Jane groaned softly in confusion. One minute they are sharing this moment where Jane just knew Maura had felt… There was something there, physically that just… Cicked finally for what had seemed like years of fumbling around what to do with someone so important. Then the next moment Maura is leaving, and she isn't mad, and she hadn't really run, but she had been emotional….and Jane didn't like feeling so helpless seeing her that way. Especially if she were the reason why she felt she needed to leave.

She was, right? That's why Maura left so suddenly… Because of her. Right?

Jane knew her best friend though. She knew that Maura still had a hard time with certain emotions. She knew that if left alone and upset the ME would slip into a near state of paralyzing compulsion, and she knew that Maura didn't like to talk about that, ever.

 _ **What's wrong?"**_

Jane typed and paused a moment before deleting it and resting her phone on her nightstand. She was an impatient person and Maura was a patient one, that among several other stark differences allowed them to find some kind of middle ground with the other. If she were being true to their friendship, and honest with herself she knew that waiting was the best option.

Her confusion was riddled with a guilt she couldn't understand until her arm brushed against her chest after setting her phone aside. Jane closed her eyes and let out a thin breath. Her mind had suddenly filled with its previous positions: Maura's breasts pressed against her own, her legs snaked within hers, her lips. Jane tried to steady her breath but found just like before she seemed helpless to this urge. It burned her abdomen, singed her lungs, but most dangerously filled her with a criminal feeling Jane had so carefully kept set aside for years now.

Jane Rizzoli's being once conflicted with concern favored non-concern for anything but feeding this

Her hand slipped under the elastic of her shorts and her brows knitted at the tension building in her shoulders.

She were tense all over.

Remembering Maura's fingers sliding up her arms caused the detective to exhale quickly.

This was wrong.

Jane sat up suddenly determined to cast the feeling away. Maura was upset, and she was thinking about getting off? Was that disgusting? She felt sick, feverish even… Jane took a deep breath and ran a hand through her tangled hair. "Maura." She cursed not knowing what to do with herself.

A cold shower and maybe a sleep aide, yes, she'd take two.

Two cold showers and two sleep aides.

Maybe in the morning this all would make more sense.

##

"Are you sure? Korsak asked as he and the rest of the room hurried to slip on their blazers and overcoats.

Jane sat at her desk and waved him off. "Yeah, someone's gotta be here to get the call."

"I think she's catching a cold." Frankie nodded as he adjusted his jacket. "The Jane Rizzoli I know would have been first in line."

Korsak nodded in agreement. "She has been pretty quiet this morning."

"She is also sitting right here." Jane rubbed at her cheek. "I didn't sleep well last night, I think the last thing I should be wielding is a semi-automatic pistol don't you think?" They still had so much work to do.

"It might help." Vince offered.

"Not just any semi automatic pistol, Jane." Nina nodded as she came over with her purse and her overcoat draped over her arm. "THE semi-automatic pistol."

Frankie smiled dreamily. "This is how I knew you and I were meant to be."

"Oh please." Nina rolled her eyes but tossed him a sweet look after.

"You guys go." Jane nodded. She never really liked being the center of attention, and right now with the way her friends crowded her desk it made her feel a little caged in.

Korsak waited a moment more before agreeing. "Alright, Officer McKnight from the clerk's office should be calling soon with that information. Once we get the search warrant we can be out of here and down at the docks in less than a half an hour."

Jane nodded and watched Frankie and Nina hurry to make the front of the mass exodus of detectives running for the stairs and elevator. "Ay ay, sir." Jane saluted. Korsak gave her another fond look but soon moved with a speed Jane could only recall seeing when that taco truck parked itself in front of BPD during the summer months. She shook her head in amusement before returning to her computer screen.

She had been trying to prepare herself for the interview with Turner's ex-husband when a call from one of Korsak's CI's came in tipping them off to some recent suspicious activities at the longshoreman's union meetings. There were a few names attached to prior criminal stints that became quite interesting to the team so Jane volunteered to run them through a few databases. If that search warrant came in before lunch maybe they'd be able to find something worthy of a personal residency warrant, or better yet maybe they'd stumble upon some actual evidence. The fact that this guy was working alone seemed less and less likely to her, this could be a lot bigger than they initially realized.

Jane didn't care much for unions. Her Union Rep Sal D'Alisio was a balding man in his late sixties who she supposed failed the political career track and still wanted to do something where he seemed important yet equally sleezy.

That was just her off-the-cuff assessment of him anyway.

Some officers adored him though, would do anything for him, she wondered if murder could be on the list for the longshoreman. With a history of the docks being so colored with organized crime she wouldn't bet on there not being some mob like involvement.

"Start with the obvious track first." Jane reminded herself. The union would be the way to go. They'd need to widen their search to members who maybe paid more than just their dues or even ones who experienced a huge financial crisis recently where the union stepped in and helped them out….

Jane nodded. "Still doesn't explain how personal this all seems…" She mumbled to herself as she worked. The manner in which these women were handled spoke differently to the group theory. Forensically one perpetrator inflicted those wounds…

She became so engulfed with her theories that she hadn't even been alerted by her normal cues that Maura was not very far away. She didn't hear her heels on the marble in the hall before the elevator, didn't smell her perfume, didn't sense her a mere foot away watching her work for a few seconds before placing a coffee cup down at her desk.

Jane only really realized she wasn't alone anymore when the oh-so alluring aroma of freshly ground coffee hit her nostrils. Somewhat startled she examined the coffee cup that had somehow just appeared on her desk. It was from Boston Joe's, a large, and it had the words. "I'm sorry." Written in red Sharpe marker on the side where her name usually hung.

Maura's handwriting.

Jane looked up quickly and there she was, clad in her red coat and leather gloves having just stepped into the office herself, Her hair was up in a professional bun today, and Jane didn't need to know the scientific name for the well foundationed bags under her eyes to know the other woman hadn't slept a wink either.

She was still probably the most beautiful woman in the world…maybe number two in this state of fatigue Jane supposed.

"Hey…" The detective sat back in her chair, she couldn't read the look on her friends face which made her cautious.

"May I sit?" Maura motioned a gloved hand to the chair that often sat beside a detective's desk.

"Yeah, yeah." Jane jumped to move the stacks of envelopes and the coat that she had carelessly tossed there when she got in three hours ago. When it was cleared Maura sat down, placed her own coffee cup beside Jane's and carefully removed her gloves. Jane frowned at how the doctor chose to expend her energy: carefully, methodically, whatever she was going to say she rehearsed over and over.

"Where is everyone?" The ME asked suddenly very aware that they were the single two people in the entire office.

Jane looked around them noticing it too. "Oh that shooting range down the block just got in a couple Desert Eagles…"

Maura seemed confused. "I didn't know Hank's cared much for endangered species."

Jane raised a brow. "It's a gun, Maura."

"Is it?"

"Yes. Big gun."

"Oh…." She nodded acutely as if storing the information away for later reference. "That makes sense."

They smiled gently at one another before Jane rested her left elbow on her desk and leaned forward some. "What's goin' on, Maur?" Her tone was hushed but she couldn't wait anymore. "What happened last night?"

Maura touched her arm and sighed. "I owe you an apology."

Jane glanced at her hand on her forearm before Maura quickly moved it back to her lap. Jane tried to change her expression. She wasn't sure what Maura had seen just then but she knew it wouldn't be productive now. "Alright well… Why don't you tell me about it."

"It's… Hard to explain, Jane and…" Jane waited for her to find her words. "And I'm embarrassed, and upset at myself, enraged at myself actually… " She stopped and exhaled slowly. "I had a wonderful time last night. When we…Kissed I… Realized just how…." She bit her lip. "Frightened I was of us making a mistake because it felt…" She smiled sadly at her friend and touched her own chest where her heart was. Jane's eyes softened. "Lovely." She breathed.

"I felt that too."

"You did?"

Jane smiled a little. "Yeah…" Maura blinked, a moment of relief washing over her. "You know you can tell me anything, Maura." Jane reminded. "I'm still me." She adjusted herself in her seat. "I didn't like seeing you cry…I thought that maybe I did something…y'know, physically wrong."

"No." she quickly shook her head. "Jane everything you _did_ was perfect…"

Jane blushed some but adjusted her features to remain concerned. "You still left."

Maura nodded and nervously fingered the material of her gloves a moment before letting them go with effort. "When I got home I tried to think of how I was feeling, with you, and I tried to manufacture some kind of righteous explanation. I even wanted to blame you for… Making me feel so….Important, and I know that sounds ridiculous, immature even." She shook her head at herself. "…After I meditated… I came to the conclusion, Jane, that I got scared." She waited. "The prospect of true intimacy has.." Maura looked away and began absently playing with her gloves again "Seldom been a theme." She needed Jane to understand her fears, they had promised each other honesty and if she didn't say this now she wasn't sure she ever would. Maura looked back over to her best friend. "I don't know what it looks like, or how it feels and… I got scared that I may not be.. wired properly for it."

Jane's face fell. "Wired?—Maura…eh—"

"—That's why I left. Do you understand it?"

Jane looked a mixture of emotions. She regarded the floor briefly as she tried to see what Maura saw. The evidence had all been there though, overwhelmingly so. "But…" She looked up at her friend and let up a soft smile. "You held me back."

Maura's face wrinkled. "I beg your pardon?"

"You held me back Maura, and you didn't shut down or your robot batteries didn't surge out or anything." The ME chuckled softly. "You held me back okay? You're more than capable." She nodded. "and if it's something that maybe we figure out together then that's what we do because I'm gonna give you a bit of a shocker, I'm not really good at having people this close to me either—"

"Oh Jane, you hav—"

"Not like you." The detective stopped her firmly. They openly stared at one another for a moment before Maura nodded.

"I hope you'll let me grovel accordingly." She dipped her chin.

Jane smiled softly, a touch of that firmness still in her eyes. "The coffee is good enough."

"There is still so much that I felt that I don't know how to say." The doctor admitted a little frustrated at the whole ordeal as she sat back in her chair. "I've even looked up scientific studies on neglect in children—"

Jane waved a hand out. "Alright you are no longer aloud to own a computer outside of work."

Maura softened. "I despise not understanding something. Especially myself."

Jane nodded sympathetically. "I know."

"Hormonally speaking—"

"Maura."

She smiled apologetically. "Together?"

Jane nodded slowly. "Together."

Just then a call came in that Jane had to grab. Maura watched her professionally take down some information and ask a few follow up questions. She tilted her head at her friend. Just seeing Jane today made her feel happy, more grounded. She was able to think clearly. For a long time it had always been the opposite, where her solitude grounded her. Even now the warmness she felt throughout probably had little do with her body simply metabolizing her well balanced breakfast of macronutrients like she originally imagined. It was Jane. "Unexpected surges in Dopamine and the tapering down of Serotonin, of course.…" She realized with a soft smile. A neurotrophin called Nerve Growth Factor accompanied all this euphoria last night and increased her emotional dependency to a level that Maura was not expecting whatsoever. She'd never been emotionally dependent on anything, not really….

Jane furrowed a brow having just hung up from the call. "What?"

"When I see you." She offered thoughtfully.

Jane touched her knee. "All I'm saying is work on it, I don't think Hallmark is gonna understand that one."

Maura laughed and Jane smiled.

"We okay?" The detective finally asked with raised brows and big soulful brown eyes that Maura couldn't refuse.

"Yes." She reached out for her hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, Jane."

Jane smiled easily. "We'll figure it all out." She reassured softly. "Okay?"

Maura nodded. "Together."

"Without Google." She said slowly as if speaking to a small child.

Maura laughed again. "Yes, yes okay."

Jane squeezed her knee affectionately and was about to say something when her phone rang again. She sighed and went to reach for it. "Rizzoli, Homicide…Officer McKnight…. Fine Sir. Yeah….Mhm…Perfect, yeah, I'll print it now… Hey thanks a bunch alright?" Jane hung up and jumped out of her seat startling Maura.

"What is it?"

"Warrant came through, Gotta go get the guys." Maura stood and they embraced quickly. "But first I'm gonna go shoot a really big gun." Maura only shook her head with a small laugh as Jane hurriedly put on her blazer and grabbed her coat. "I'll call you later." She pointed at Maura with her car keys as she strode out the door.

Maura didn't see Jane again until late evening. It had been a full day for the Chief Medical Examiner once again, she intended to show some budgetary spreadsheets to Kent but there was a small chemical fire started by one of her newest techs and the paper work to match. A young woman passed away waiting for an organ donor, an older man with a failing kidney. A friend of hers from medical school had called during lunch with a challenging case in Denmark where he lived, and Maura had just finished reviewing and signing a stack of death certificates when the lean object of her floating thoughts announced her presence with a small sigh.

Maura looked up from her desk and smiled at Jane's slow movements to the seafoam couch before plopping herself down on it and yawning. "You've been favoring your left knee still." She went back to start an email.

"You should see the other guy." Jane joked in a distracted grumble; Frankie's face had yet to heal back completely from their basketball scuffle. The tall woman slouched deeply into the couch and stared blankly at the masks of death on Maura's walls. The consistent humming from the large refrigeration units and the small yet insistent ticks of Maura typing an email were quite comforting. Jane's eyelids began to grow heavy but she fought them. "Are we going to see any results from that dirt sample Nina brought down on your super-secret ladies lunch?"

Maura hit send and looked around her laptop at Jane and her legs sprawled out from underneath her. "You should wear a compression brace, so the tissue heals properly." Jane nodded. "The results should be in over the weekend."

"Hm, oh right, it's Friday night."

Maura stood and organized the death certificates on her desk into a envelope and then into a delivery parceled package. "Do you have any plans?"

Jane sat up some in her seat and pressed her palms along her lap, letting them run to her knees. "Was going to ask you the same thing." Maura looked at her. "Wanna get a drink?"

"At The Dirty Robber?"

Jane hesitated. "Um… No." It was Friday night and her mother was surely working. "I was thinking more like Dailey's…or somewhere, y'know…not The Robber." She sat up even straighter now.

Maura only blinked. "Okay."

"Yeah?" Jane hurried to stand as if slouching much longer would change Maura's mind.

"Sure." She smiled.

Dailey's Pub was the highest of high class pubs in the area. Cop bar nor Fire hide out, the bar itself had remained neutral ground for generations of emergency response teams. Rumor had it that Timothy Dailey himself had had a few run ins with the Irish mob and that's why the establishment never really gained a more… uniformed following but who ever knew if that were the case or not. Regardless the place was pretty nice: original tall and round leather booths hugged the perimeter allowing for the feel of seclusion, menus though garnished with pub staples were bound on an impressive slab of leather. Nothing was served in its bottle, and their napkins were actually some (albeit starchy) sort of cloth.

It was the nicest place Jane could think of that wouldn't break the bank before an expensive trip like New York. Hell at one point it was the nicest place Jane could think of at all.

They sat in one of the smaller booths elevated by a small step and tucked away into a corner of the dining room. It was busy and that was good because as Maura sipped her wine and people watched Jane was able to think of what she wanted to say next. They were both tired, that she knew, and the idea of them sitting out on a Friday night not talking to one another and tired almost made her want to laugh.

"It's nice here." Maura turned back to Jane to rest her Cabernet down.

"You like it?" Jane asked motioning to the polished wooden tables and dim-ish lighting. "Not exactly Per Se."

"I'm glad you mentioned it."

Jane reached for her tall glass of amber colored beer. "It's a nice spot to um…y'know hear someone." She rolled her eyes at herself and Maura smiled fondly.

"You're gwtting old, are you?"

Jane smiled back. "These kids these days, y'know?" She leaned forward some. "Frankie and I had a witness we needed to follow up on a few weeks back—you were in France still—and he's in this new bar with a live DJ and seasonal cocktails—" Maura was laughing. "The place could have easily been misplaced for a strip club, Maur, and we couldn't hear a damn thing he was saying. Good thing Frankie was able to read lips, I walked out of there with zero statement and a headache to match." She took a sip of her beer and looked around as Maura had just been. "It is kinda nice…" Maybe they could come here again.

"Do you know that I have never been to a strip club."

Jane stared at her for a second. "What?"

"Nope, never."

"What about that body we found a year ago behind Mermaids?"

"Well Jane I never went inside, it was also four in the afternoon when the victim was discovered." She reached for her water glass suddenly surprised by the wine that wasn't in her glass anymore.

The detective rolled her eyes and reached for her beer again. "That doesn't mean a thing, you have your early girls—"

"Oh you know a lot about this topic?"

Jane shrugged. "I worked Vice before Homicide, Maura, I've seen some things."

Amused by the turn in conversation Maura leaned forward dramatically. "Tell me about the early woman."

"Girls." Jane corrected.

"I don't see how making them prepubescent makes it any better."

"It's just what they're call—never mind." Jane shook her head with a small laugh. "How about this, I'll do you one better. Put it on the list, I'll take you to one in New York."

"Oh we shouldn—"

"Why not?" Jane grinned loving the way Maura's brows knitted in both intrigue and worry. "No one knows us there, it'll be fun."

"….I have always wondered how the process works."

Jane's grin fell. "The process, Maura? Really?"

"Of being discovered." She explained factually.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Take it easy. I'm not bringing you to get a job."

Maura waved her off. "Trust me I have my hands full with my current state of employment. I've just always been curious of the breakdown of society in an environment where usually taboo lifestyles are celebrated. From an anthropological stand point gender and sex are policed heavily, where the patriarchal male is both the victim and the savior." She took another sip of water. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall. Unequivocally th—"

"So it's settled." Jane interrupted. "We put Tasha to bed, and then we check one out." Jane raised her glass. "An hour tops though, those places are really…rough. Even for you Dr. Goodall."

Maura clinked their glasses together. "How exciting!"

Jane laughed. "What the hell am I getting myself into?"

"Jane I can't go alone, would you rather me go alone?"

Jane shook her head as she sipped her beer. "Yeah no, you can't go in there by yourself." She snorted. "You'd either wind up running the place or get stolen or something."

"What do you think my stripper name would be?"

Jane sighed and took a moment to think. "What's this called?" She pointed to the flat area just above her nose between her eyes.

Maura tilted her head. "Your glabella." Obviously.

"That." Jane grinned and began to chuckle as Maura seemed disappointed in her selection. "It's either that or Poindexter."

"I don't care for either."

Jane shrugged. "Well let's talk about something else." Maura laughed and agreed. For about a half hour they talked about their days. Maura noted that Jane took particular interest in her conversations with others today, usually it remained solely on the police work and the forensics, but the detective asked questions about her thoughts on interactions, if she thought she were understood, if the other person were in a good mood. It wasn't unlike her to fall into the nature of her work while living her everyday life. Still the ME always found it interesting where Jane's line of questioning would end, maybe even a little revealing. A small lull hit them when they both ordered a second drink and some more water.

Jane cleared her throat carefully as she looked at the menu before her she had grabbed when their glasses were taken away. "You hungry?" Maura shook her head in the negative. Jane tossed her a warning look. "If I order fries you can't have any."

"What kind of thing is that to say to your best friend?"

The raven haired woman continued to read the menu. "I don't even know why I bother, you always take some anyway." Jane decided she'd order the nachos. They sounded really good and The Robber didn't have nachos. Another small quiet hit the table then. Maura watched Jane thoughtfully and the detective raised a soft brow in silent question when she decided to notice it.

"Why didn't you want to go to The Dirty Robber?" Maura finally asked.

Jane shrugged softly and looked around at their new surroundings before looking back at her. "Wanted to make a little time… y'know away from everything." She knew that her immediate future would probably be filled with a lot of late nights at the precinct and secretly hoped the private setting would give them an opportunity to talk about last night, really talk... "We got some good leads but y'know the longer this unsub or group of unsubs goes un-arrested the colder the case gets."

"You've always been anxious over that." Maura pointed out.

"What?"

"The notion of a case growing cold."

Jane nodded thoughtfully. "Time really screws with evidence, people get comfortable in their lies, they protect them…" She rolled her shoulders. "Three is enough for me."

Maura sat back into the booth gently and regarded Jane then, she really was beautiful, but at moments like this, when her thoughts ran down a path of case related possibilities her face almost seemed vexed handsome, fierce and powerful all in one. "Only three?"

Jane nodded. "You know them."

"I do." They almost felt like hers too. A near decade of professional collaboration would forever link them, at least to the Medical Examiner's Office and the BPD Homicide Unit. At that moment the waitress arrived to place their drinks down. Jane ordered the platter of nachos and Maura took a sip of her wine and waited as the rich flavors of organic earth and spice blended together and the tannin gripped her gums tightly before letting them loose. "Jane?"

Jane was wiping the beer foam from her mouth with the back of her palm. Her face still vexed in thought. "Yeah, Maur?"

"Last night…"

Jane nodded. "…Yeah."

"I liked it." She waited for Jane to fully look at her. "A lot."

Jane let out a small breath of air as a corner of her mouth twitching upward in what eventually would be a smirk or a smile but the detective stopped it before it got any bigger. "I did too." She rested her beer down on the table. "A lot."

Maura could feel her ears burn, but there was a seriousness to their tones that she couldn't let lie for the flighty feeling of such an intimate confession. The two stared at one another a moment more before Maura tilted her head slightly. "You aren't mad that I left." She read.

Jane shook her head. "I could never be mad at you for that, Maura."

"Where do I categorize this look then?" She motioned to Jane's face.

"I'm just thinking of how it would have been if you stayed, we could have talked…" She shook her head and cupped the base of her beer with both hands as if to anchor herself. "I didn't like feeling worried like that."

Maura looked momentarily distressed but then just plain old sad. She reached for Jane's hands cupping her beer. "I am sorry."

Jane knew it. She knew it from the moment she saw Maura's face this morning. This wasn't about getting an apology, she didn't need one, she understood her best friend more than the other woman probably gave her credit for. This was about sharing how she felt. "If you want your space then I get it, but you gotta tell me that." She smiled a little to ease the lines of worry Maura wore. "I'm not a mind reader… and I was kinda…y'know thinking about other things at the time."

Maura let out a small breath of air but smiled back at her. "Of course." She nodded. "I can do that." The blonde took her hands away but was surprised when Jane caught one.

"If we each don't freak out at least three more times I'd be worried." They laughed lightly about it, their fingers lacing above the table. "Plus Maura…" Jane's features softened "I-I like the way you're wired."

"—Alright we've got some nachos." The two were interrupted by their waitress coming over and waiting for them to unlink their hands before placing a large platter of sizzling nachos down in between them.. "Here you go."

Jane was already reaching for the nachos and Maura smiled for her and thanked the waitress before looking back at the woman who had just made her heart enter a momentary bout of premature ventricular contractions. "Jane use a napkin at least." The ME smiled lovingly at her because how could you not?

Maura found that the woman groaning happily across from her as she fought with a string of melted cheese was a woman she felt most exposed with, a woman who currently could give a damn about her accolades and all the tools Maura strategically set up to essentially isolate herself in the past, a woman who made her body hum with this sort of revival, and who made her orderly and easily discernable world now seem a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.

Simply put, Jane thrilled her.

In ways Maura supposed she never imagined she'd even appreciate.

It scared her something awful, but the pathologist couldn't retreat like she had Thursday night. There was no reason to when you had the foundation they had. She saw that now.

"Maura these are so good, you gotta try 'em."

Maura smiled at her in a way that exposed her dimples before leaning forward and searching for a manageable piece among the glops of melted cheese and beans. "Perhaps we need a fork?" She looked up at Jane.

"A fork? C'mon Maura, you don't eat nachos with a fork!" They indulged happily in the booth; ordering a small side of greens and one more round of drinks before deciding to call it a night and head out.

Jane smiled to herself at how Maura linked their arms together shortly after exiting Dailey's for the cold nights air. "Shit it's cold." She chuckled as she pulled Maura little closer before rubbing her own exposed hands together. "What is this?"

Maura nodded, her cheeks flush from the wine and sudden chill. "Tasha mentioned it may in fact snow when we get in."

Jane dipped the hand that wasn't linked with Maura's into her coat pocket and located her keys. "Let me drive you home."

The shorter woman smiled with her eyes before reaching forward to grab Jane's car keys. "As long as you let me open the door for you."

Jane let out a small laugh before letting go of the keys. "Alright, you remember where I parked?"

Maura's smile dropped as she looked around cutely. "No."

"Guess we have to walk…" She joked.

Maura motioned to her heels incredulously. "Jane."

"I didn't tell you to wear—" There was a strong vibrating sensation coming from her pocket. "—Hold on." Maura scanned the street as Jane pulled out her cell phone and frowned. "It's Frankie."

"Answer it."

Jane nodded before hitting a button and bringing the phone to her ear. The unmistakable sound of Friday night at the The Dirty Robber filled the background. Jane smiled fondly at the familiar hooting and hollering, someone had put on Danny Boy in the background… With a glance at Maura on her arm Jane wondered what it would be like to be there together, like this.

"Hey Frankie."

"Hey Janie!" He had already had a couple beers. "You coming by or what?"

Jane chuckled. "Nah, I um," She glanced at Maura again. "Maura and I went somewhere else."

"You better not let Korsak hear that." He warned.

Jane motioned Maura with her chin up the block to signal that she had parked not too far away. The two began to walk. "I won't say anything if you don't."

"What are brother's for?"

"Blaming things on when you break something?" Frankie laughed with his gut. It made Jane smile. "You call me just to update your GPS or something?" She teased.

"Nah listen look, Ma lost her phone—"

Jane stopped walking and glanced at Maura."—How'd she lose her phone?"

"I dunno, I keep asking her and she says she just lost it."

"Where?"

"I dunno!"

"Well what? Was she trying to call me or something?"

"She needs a ride home, she's all done for the night here and uh.. I can't give her a ride."

Jane shook her head. "and why not?"

"Because Nina and I are heading the other way back home, and nothing kills the mood more than your mother reminding you to floss and pick up after yourself."

"Gross."

"You gotta do me this favor."

"All I do is do you favors."

Frankie laughed. "C'mon Janie please, with this case y'know we haven't really had much time away to y'know—"

"Double gross, Frankie geez, fine just stop talking alright?"

"So you'll come pick her up?" He frowned. "Were you and Maura—"

"We're just leaving, yeah it's no problem, just tell her to be ready outside."

"You know you're the best right?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah I know." She shook her head as she hung up and looked to her side at Maura who was waiting patiently for an explanation. "We gotta pick Ma up."

"Oh, Angela, is she okay?"

"Yeah she lost her phone or something. I guess Ron is working and Frankie is well… Trying to get laid." Jane said distractedly as she slipped her phone back into her coat. "You don't mind right?"

Maura smiled. "Absolutely not." She patted Jane's arm, the one she had her own arm wrapped around. "I wonder if she would like to go with me tomorrow morning to look at spring potentials for the garden." They continued walking. "I would ask you if you'd like to accompany me but—"

"You know better?"

"Yes well I'd rather not have to deal with you complaining the whole time."

Jane grinned. "Why don't you just date my mother?" She tossed.

Maura made an amused noise. "I don't think she'd have much patience for my closet organization."

"And I would?"

"Well you'd never go in it seeing as how you keep your clothes in garbage bags."

Jane only smirked. "Point taken."

When they got to Jane's car the detective laughed and then smiled sweetly at Maura as the ME made a grand show of opening the driver's side door for her before closing it and then running around to the passenger's seat so she could give Jane the keys to actually start the vehicle.

The trip to The Robber wasn't a long one by distance but the area had hipped up quite a bit over the past few years, and it was after all Friday night. Every other block Jane was stopping for droves of twenty somethings dashing in groups across the street in articles of clothing way to revealing or tight to be helpful in this weather. By the time they rounded the corner and Jane spotted her mother on the corner outside of The Robber talking to a group of younger off-duty cops who were smoking cigarettes: Jane's patience for driving had worn thin.

"C'mon Ma." Jane looked over at Maura, "Does she have to talk to everyone she sees?"

"Your mother is outgoing, jane."

"Yeah well she needs to be outgoing to get a cab, or outlooking for her cell phone—"

"The first one was funnier."

Jane stared at the soft smirk on Maura's relaxed features. "Oh yeah? You're criticizing my jokes while you fall asleep?" It was cute.

Maura readjusted herself and blinked rapidly a few times. "I'm not falling asleep."

Jane only smiled. She so was. Maura didn't even realize how she was leaning against the passenger side door and taking even longer more steadied breaths did she? The ME had also stopped talking about the weather and her metrology suspicions on global warming five minutes ago. "You are." There was no way she could fight this.

"I am not."

"What's the square root of seven hundred thirty-three?"

The ME blinked once before locking her jaw in an effort to concentrate. "…Twenty seven." She decided.

"You're lucky I can't check that." Jane unbuckled her seat belt and lowered her window before sticking her head out. "Ma!" Angela spotted them for the second time and waved before taking the cigarette out from between a younger officer's fingers and stamping it to the concrete. She pointed at the other two smoking officers and Jane watched only mildly impressed as they stamped theirs out soon after. Her mother could get a grizzly bear to consider becoming vegan in a salmon drought.

It was her gift.

"Hi honey!" Angela waved again as she started toward the car.

Jane lifted a hand limply in a small wave back. "Hi Ma, yes I see you." She smiled then. Her mother looked nice in her grey button-down shirt and simple black jeans, there was this little twinkle in her eyes Jane could always remember feeling special under that particular gaze as a kid. The small white strips above her eye from the car accident had been removed but when the other woman stepped under a bright street lamp Jane could just make out the scar that had settled there. With a small sigh at herself and a handful of guilt Jane glanced at a dozed off Maura before getting out of the car to help her mother with the small paper take-out bag in her hand.

"Hi, Ma."

"Oh thank you." Angela smiled as her daughter took the doggie bag away from her. "That's for you, we had all these onions rings left over after my shift." She explained as she went to the back seat of the car and opened the door.

Jane grinned. "Nice." She got back into the driver's seat and put the bag on Maura's lap who jumped a little out of her half sleep.

"Oh." The blonde wrinkled her nose at the smell of fried onion and grease already clinging to her clothes. She moved it to her floor of the car beside her purse before turning and smiling sleepily. "Hello Angela."

Angela buckled her seatbelt and rested a motherly hand on jane's shoulder as she sat up in the back seat. "Maura honey, were you just sleeping?"

"I'm afraid I—"

"No."

Maura cut a look at Jane who had interrupted her. "I was resting." The ME clarified before looking back to Angela. "Frankie tells us you lost your phone. I have some lovely memory recovery exercises we can look into when we get home, you know it's imperative to have a bit of cognitive relapse as close to the initial realization of missing the lost artifact as possible. Where did you last see it?"

Angela removed her hand from Jane's shoulder and motioned to her stitches. "I think I may have lost a few marbles with this thing too." She joked.

Maura examined her face. "All your scans came back clean."

"It's a figure of speech, honey." Angela waved her off. "One minute I have it and I'm texting Ron—Have you kids heard of sexting?"

"Ma!" Jane all but shouted from the front seat as she maneuvered the car back through the crowds of Friday night thrill seekers.

Angela waved her off too. "Anyway I had it, then poof! Gone, nowhere to be found."

"Where did you…sext last?"

"Maura." Jane growled.

Maura's smile was teasing. "If it helps to jog her memory Jane—"

"Okay new rule. While I'm driving, no one talks about sexting." Jane kept her eyes on the road while her mother and Maura grinned at one another. "At all, in any language." She glanced at Maura. "That includes nerdling."

Maura looked back over her seat. "Where did you have it last?"

"At the hospital."

"What were you doing at the hospital, Ma?"

Angela rolled her eyes. "My boyfriend is a doctor, Jane."

"Wait a minute you were sexting him while he was at work?" Jane furrowed her brows. "Isn't that like… not okay?"

Angela threw her hands up. "When else I supposed to do it!?"

"He's a doctor Ma, not an accountant."

"I thought you didn't want to talk about sexting, although I don't know why, you've been all bent out of shape lately, it may do you some good. To find someone to sext." She looked back at Maura. "What was it? chronic agitation?"

Maura nodded. "Hardly depression."

Jane sighed heavily. "…Forget I said anything."

"We can swing by tomorrow morning." Maura nodded. "Although I do admit my accompaniment comes at a price."

Angela nodded. "Name it, Doc. I had pictures of baby TJ on there, or in the cloud, or wherever."

"I want to think of some new inspirations for the garden, it's still a little too cold, but there must be some lovely arrangements at the nursery now."

"Perfect, I was wondering when we would tackle it."

Maura nodded. "How is your fern doing?"

"The ice cubes helped, you were right."

Jane drove on tuning the other women out and focusing on the road. It was a lovely night despite the almost sinister chill in the air. There wasn't really a cloud in the sky, and the moon shown down on the city with an amazingly pale guidance. When she finally pulled up to the Maura's front door she turned to look at probably the two most important women in her life and smiled some. Maura had yet to turn in her seat to face forward and they were debating the rationality behind daises.

"Alright ladies, this is your stop." She announced in fear that they wouldn't even notice the car was stopped and she'd be required to sit here all night.

Angela jumped at this. "Oh good, I've got to pee so bad." She leaned forward and placed a motherly kiss on Jane's cheek

"Agh, Ma, c'mon."

"I made you, I can kiss you." She reasoned before ruffling her hair some too. "Thanks for the lift, Hon'."

Jane swatted her away. "Thanks for the onion rings."

Angela turned to begin getting out of the car leaving Jane and Maura to look at one another.

"You won't come in?" Maura asked.

Jane shrugged once. "I'm tired, Maura."

Maura nodded quickly. "Of course."

"I'll see you tomorrow though? For baseball?"

Maura blinked. Right, that thing they did together most Saturdays. She'd need to find a good book… "Right."

Jane leaned forward some with her left hand on the steering wheel for support. "Ma's waiting for you." She murmured with a small smirk when Maura leaned forward a little too.

Maura looked over her shoulder and chuckled at Angela standing under the front door light searching her bag vigorously for her keys while jigging from foot to foot. "I'd better go then." She leaned forward some more and surprised Jane with a soft kiss on the cheek, it was the kind that lingered and borderlined a nuzzle. It was a sweet gesture that left Jane smiling stupidly as she watched Maura reach down and grab her purse and the take-out bag.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, those are mine." She had alsmot missed it.

"It's far too late to be eating these, Jane." Maura dismissed as she got out of the car.

Jane frowned. "I'm hungry though." She looked through the passenger side window which had been rolled down with a pout.

"Impossible, you just had nachos."

Jane's pout toppled over to one side of her face. "I'm still growing?"

Maura shook her head. "Your autopsy is going to be extremely long, and tedious." She tossed the bag back into the passenger seat of the car.

Jane chuckled. "Because of all the deliciousness I eat?"

Maura leaned against the window some. "One could put it that way." Jane chuckled and moved the bag of onion rings to her lap in fear that Maura would try and take them away again through the window. Instead the pathologist smiled. "Goodnight, Jane."

Jane wanted to find a reason to stay all of a sudden but knew Maura would see right through it. "Night, Maur…" She took her hands off the wheel. "You should call me… y'know if you can't sleep."

"May I?"

Jane nodded quickly. "Yeah. Of course." They exchanged shy little waves and Jane waited to ensure everyone was inside the house safely before reaching one hand into the greasy bag of onion rings and steering the car back onto the street with the other.


	21. Chapter 21

"Here?"

"Detective."

Jane nodded in thanks at the officer and felt forward into the darkness of the brush behind the stone pillar of Gansevoort Park, there the night air thickened humidly and the smell of horror hugged Jane's nostrils and caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up.

Korsak was squatted in front of a body, female, Jane could tell with what little she could see past her partner's stocky frame.

"Guy was walking his dog." Vince began as he stood. "Great Dane—Peaches dragged him here."

Jane could see just how tired he was of this by the look on his face when he turned to greet her and their met eyes. Years of death, years of unanswered questions, his service had well met it's end and she knew it. Jane nodded once and reached into her pocket for her blue crime scene gloves. "I was just leaving BPD when I got the call."

"She sure looks a lot younger than our other two." Vince nodded as he took a step backward in professional curtesy as Jane began a slow circle around the battered corpse. "Not a brunette either."

Jane stopped short of the body and watched it suspiciously as any animal might noting the newness of death might. Korsak was right, she was much younger than their other victims, blonde hair, had to be about Maura's height, blue eyes… Jane watched her face a moment, her eyes wide open and slightly bulging. Maura would want to run tests, but the now blueish purple marks along her neckline and the bit of blood that colored her irises lead Jane to believe that she had been strangled and hit in the head with something heavy. Jane looked down to her body and pressed her lips into a firm scowl when she noted that her tangled legs were also bruised. She turned to look at her partner. "She's hidden better too."

"Don't think our unsub was expecting us to find her tonight." He pulled out his detective's pad and began to jot down some notes about the crime scene with what little light the moon provided.

Jane looked back down at the body. "He was rushed…" She turned to Korsak again. "We're about four blocks or so from Pier 33 right?" Pier 33 was a boardwalk for pedestrians lined with lobster shacks and dive bars, it was extremely popular among college students looking for cheap eats and drinks with a view and just so happened to be adjacent the longshoreman's Union Local 237 operation headquarters.

The same Union that Jane has been taking turns sitting parked outside for the better part of the week.

Korsak nodded once. "I had Nina head back to BPD to check in with all of our likes." He motioned his notepad toward her. "Frankie is checking in with the first responders who canvased the area after the call."

"They interview the guy with the dog?" Jane looked back toward the woman on the ground before them.

"Yup."

Jane nodded to herself as she stared at her face. "She's gotta be twenty two…"

"No identification on her, no jewelry."

"How much you wanna bet she wasn't robbed?" Jane squatted down to get a better look at her and frowned when the pleasantness of whatever oriental perfume she had been wearing reached her. "She doesn't smell dead…"

Korsak nodded once. "No, but I'm guessing Doctor Isles is going to be the judge of that. She's on her way now."

Jane leaned forward some and reached for her hand. "Dirt under her nails, maybe we'll get some skin…" She put the hand back down where she found it and huffed before standing and taking her gloves off.

Korsak nodded at the look on her face. "You think we got a leak?"

Jane slapped the balled-up gloves into her palm. "I don't know."

"We haven't released any detail to the news."

"I want an alibi on all of those union assholes yesterday" She spat. "How come we're always playing catch up?"

Vince nodded in the way he always did whenever he tried to balance out Jane's frustration. "We'll get 'em."

Jane trudged forward out of the thickly shaded area and into the crispy nights air without agreeing or disagreeing. She took a slow breath and tried to close her eyes but found she couldn't. She was too wired on caffeine, she could smell it on herself. It was now Wednesday night and she were leaving for New York mid day Saturday and all she had to show for a case that started literally a month ago was another woman dead and more agitated fishermen than she cared to acknowledge. Not to mention her own personal agitation and moodiness due to lack of sleep. She had snapped at her mother today and was riddled with a new sort of guilt for not being able to see Maura at all this week.

Because now they were…. Seeing each other, or supposed to be. Jane hardly had the energy to know.

"Detective."

Jane opened her half-hooded eyes and nodded at the small line of crime scene techs barreling the small hill toward the stone pillar and filing into a little line to enter the shaded overgrowth where Korsak and the body still were. At the top of the hill the flashing lights of several police cruiser glared silently into the night eliminating every person, place, and thing with their harshness.

Jane rolled her shoulders softly and began to walk up the small hill some, something about their unsub had changed here and she wanted to get a better look at the greater area surrounding the brush. Was there a bar that looked onto the park? Was the killer sitting back with a cold one watching the scene of an investigation unfold? Or was he seated higher up?

Jane looked around her and then up toward the area where Pier 33 became industrial and cut off to the regular population.

"Jane."

She had been walking up the hill slowly with a look so distant from her familiar features that Maura in all honesty almost passed her by.

Jane snapped out of her thoughts and felt herself begin to smile at the mere sight of the other woman but when colored with the thoughts at what she had just seen the gesture came out slightly insincere. Maura nodded once in understanding. "You look nice." Jane observed motioning to the ME's very proper almost secretarially garb under her coat that had been hastily fashioned on the way here. "Where were you?"

Maura let up the smallest of smiles. "Out."

Jane quirked a brow in return before easing it back into place. "Really not in the mood to have to go kick someone's ass right now, Maura." She deadpanned and then chuckled a little at the laugh that erruoted from Maura's frame without her permission.

"I didn't know we were at that point quite yet, Jane." She teased secretly enjoying the truth behind the detective's words.

"I'm on two hours of sleep, I'm at a lot of places."

Maura motioned to the path she was just coming from. "I've noticed, are you alright?" It wasn't something she asked the woman often she realized. Jane was always supposed to be alright. "Perhaps—"

Jane nodded quickly and took another sharp breath of fresh air before stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Yeah, yeah." She lied before motioning to the flock of red and blue flashing lights with her chin. "I responded code two over here, I'm gonna go cut my lights."

Maura nodded slowly "Has anyone else arrived?"

"Korsak is with the body now, he's gonna be your primary, and Frankie is on his way back." She had already started on her path. "I'll be down there in a second."

Maura nodded and watched her go a moment before turning toward the lower end of the hill where her staff were now obediently awaiting her intake.

"Sargent Detective Korsak." She greeted and smiled in thanks at him swatting away a stray brush of tree for her to enter the enclosure.

"Good to see you, Doc."

Maura stood still a moment to take in the scene of the crime. A monstrosity of evidence lay before her unseen to the naked eye. It was on her and her team to be able to decipher it correctly to bring justice to this poor woman and her loved ones. She often paused before a scene to remember that.

"What do we have?" She asked professionally as she set her medical bag down and began to remove her wool gloves for her blue crime scene ones.

Korsak sighed. "We don't know what to make of her." He admitted tiredly. "Jane Doe, probably around twenty-one, twenty two, we think she may have been out tonight—"

Maura was already kneeling on a small mat she had brought with her and leaning over the body. "I doubt that given the wear of this dress." She pointed to the victim's armpit where the material was bunched up. "I'll have to run a forensic analysis to confirm but this may be deodorant stained into the material after great amounts of perspirations. She was possibly wearing this dress for quite some time.." Maura moved her arm slightly but then paused and kept her hand cupped at the victim's arm. She turned to look up at Korsak. "When did the first responders call dispatch?"

"Not too long ago, why?"

Maura shook her head at the series of theories flooding her train of thought. "I would… Need to run some tests." She put the victim's arm back in place and continued her search. At the sound of someone approaching with a heavy step Maura and Korsak looked up to the opening of the small enclosure to see Frankie pushing his way passed a thick branch slightly out of breath.

"Jeez." He shook his head at the body before turning to Korsak and taking on a hushed tone. "My sister here yet?"

Vince nodded once. "She went to get some air."

Frankie sighed heavily and motioned to the body. "We got a possible witness."

"That's great, who?"

"Eh, not really." Frankie looked down to his notepad and squinted. "Either he's an Alberto or an Albert."

Korsak stared at him incredulously. "He didn't say?"

"I don't think he even knows, some fraternity knuckle head, said he was… and I quote." Frankie cleared his throat. "Spwein' my nuts out when I heard some chick screaming." He glanced at Maura. "Oh… Sorry Doc."

Maura nodded once barely acknowledging their conversation as she worked. Something was off about the way the body was staged. None of the original markers from the other cases but odd similarities, as if handpicked…

"—So he won't really be of any help will he?"

Frankie shook his head no. "We're gonna sit him in the dunk tank till the morning, maybe Nina will be able to get something out of him."

"Nina?"

Frankie grinned a little, as much as one could in front of a dead woman's body. "Well we send her in there with pancakes and—"

"Ah." Korsak chuckled. "There won't be much he won't tell a pretty woman with food."

"That's my guess—Uh I asked first, Nina, I asked her first if she wanted to do it."

Korsak was tucking his notepad into his suit pocket. "Already off to a successful first marriage."

"Yeah…" Frankie stuck his hands in his suit pockets and tilted his head after a moment of examining the body. "She doesn't smell dead."

Korsak agreed. "That's what Jane said."

Maura looked over her shoulder at them. "That's because she hasn't been dead for long." She began to stand and smiled at both men who put their hands out for her to help her up. Maura took Korsak's before motioning to Frankie. "The gentleman who heard the screams, is it possible to take me to where his emesis was found." The two-detective looked at her. "His vomit."

"Uh yeah…but." Frankie motioned over his shoulder.

"You'll have to help us out here, Doc." Korsak nodded. "She's here, why are we looking for some drunk kid's vomit?"

Maura nodded. "We cannot smell her because she did not die here, she hasn't even spent an hour here." She motioned to the thick brush above them and the overgrown poorly maintained bristles. "The relative humidity here is too high and the conditions for decay and multiplication of bacteria are hospitable, increasing the pace of rigor mortis. However, if the victim died in a cold ambient environment like that of the actual park we'd be seeing what we are seeing now." She nodded. "Her skin is cool and lower extremities stiffened, but it's all backwards." Maura went on to discuss the rate at which one's body looses temperature after death (two degrees celsius within the first hour: one degree thereafter) as Frankie and Vince lead her up the hill toward the police cruisers. There on the sidewalk near the entrance of the park the team was surprised to find Jane standing beside the very bench where Alberto Albert had been standing bracing himself on the shoulders of the sturdy wood and throwing up all those chilly cheese pretzels he had eaten earlier at the bars.

Jane stared down the pile of vomit as if she were waiting for the right time to introduce herself when she heard the familiar voices of her team approaching. She looked up and put her hands on her hips. "She didn't die in there?" She asked only somewhat impressed with herself when Maura gave her an endearing nod. Three women were dead in her city, there was no time to be impressed. Jane looked back down at the vomit. "I knew she didn't smell dead."

"We're wondering if this guy maybe saw more than he remembered." Frankie nodded moving to stand beside his sister to see if he could see what Alberto Albert saw too.

Jane nodded and then looked at her watch. "Only one real way to find out."

Not liking the sound of this Korsak stepped forward. "And How exactly is that Rizzoli?"

"He's still drunk, by morning he's gonna forget everything—"

"No."

"—just let me ask him a few questions, Vince c'mon. Our only witness."

"Guy thinks we arrested him for throwing up in a public park and cheating on his girlfriend, he lawyered up."

Jane grunted. "Are you kidding me?"

Korsak shook his head. "Fraid not."

Jane nodded and then shook her head, and then nodded again. "Yeah, alright." She exhaled slowly. "What now?"

"Something happened at this crime scene that didn't happen at the others." Frankie nodded knowing first hand just how tired his sister was but trying to find some sort of energy within himself to rally her as well. This week hadn't been easy on any of them. "Maybe Alberto Albert yacking freaked our unsub out."

"We need to get an alibi from all of those longshoremen and contact the uniform that's sitting on that union rep D'Alisio's house. If any of them were in ten feet of this park tonight I want them at BPD handing over their belongings, call it circumstantial." Jane sneered.

"They work right down the block, Rizzoli. We're gonna catch a lot of fish with that net." Korsak advised. No one had noticed Maura wonder off yet.

"How much smaller of a net can we get before the news is all over this, we can't have Nina railroading their inquires forever."

"We need to think clearly, that's not going to happen without us all getting a real night sleep." Vince capped a hand on Frankie's shoulder. "Bring Alberto Albert in, make sure he's isolated. I want him to wake up and spend all the time in the world thinking about why he was locked up. Say it was for his own safety."

Frankie nodded. "Alright."

"Then go home." He turned to Jane. "I'll finish here." Jane frowned and was about to say something when Maura came back holding something clutched between her powdery blue crime scene gloves. Jane blinked before stepping forward to squint at the dangling fisher's lore key chain.

"What is that?"

Maura smiled. "A smaller net."

##

She had fallen asleep, it's the only thing that would help explain the feeling of waking to a soft tugging at her feet. "Mhmr." She tried as her heavy eyelids fought to remain closed and the warmth of her own body temperature pressed against the upholstery seduced her to listen.

Maura finished the last lace of Jane's boot to her left foot and allowed the heavy for size article to thud to the ground before moving to the other foot.

Sometimes on her way to make a nightly cup of tea or for a glass of water she would come downstairs and find Jane on her couch, gun sitting on the coffee table, safety pulled back and all. If she had remembered to take off her boots, which were usually muddied or tracking in some sort of element Maura let her sleep to wake the next day to find the couch clear and the detective already having left for work. It was her own way of communicating her concern for her and her mother without really having to say something had developed in her current case.

Sometimes though, in the anticipation of finally getting some rest Jane simply plopped herself down on the couch, shoes, badge, jacket, hat, whatever item of outwear necessary for the day didn't seem to really matter. It all left her peaceful face to be in deep contrast with the contortions necessary to sleep comfortable with a blazer or utility belt on.

The least she could do was take her boots off for her and cover her up.

Jane brows furrowed at the gentle yanking at her feet further pulling her into full consciences. "Hey… Sstop" She mumbled.

Maura looked up at her from crouching near the side of her couch in nothing but her night robe and smiled a little. "You'll stain the rug." She whispered knowing the message would only make it half way to Jane. Tonight, her boots were slicked with some sort of dark liquid she prayed wasn't blood.

That had taken three experts to remove the size nine and a half print last year.

Jane shifted against her second boot being taken off. "C'mon." She breathed, eyes still closed. Something deep within her recognizing Maura's voice and lowering the jingle of alarms panicking her system awake. She sighed again with her foot was introduced to a new coolness and freed.

Maura stood upright and frowned immensely at the image before her. Jane was too tall a woman to be confided to the elegantly petit structure of her sofa. There was no way this was going to be good for her latissimus dorsi muscle, which was currently contorted in an unnatural way. "Jane." Jane brought a hand to her face and groaned softly. "Jane."

The detective popped an eye open and fixed it on the figure before her. "Maura." Her voice rasped.

"Get up, you cannot sleep like this."

Frustration painted the detective's features as she was pulled completely awake by the request. "You're always nagging me." She mumbled, both eyes now closed again as she tried to search for that sweet spot of drowsiness that almost always promised sleep.

Maura shook her head. "I don't understand why you insist on sleeping like this." She came over and sat down on the couch in the small space before Jane's body curled and rested her hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Jane." Jane growled lowly which actually made Maura chuckle, she could feel the vibration of it run all throughout her body from sitting so close. "What has happened, why are you here?"

Jane sighed heavily before opening both eyes and looking up at her sitting on the couch with her, the smell of lavender and some other soft night cream tickled her nose, and for the first time since so rudely being awakened she really remembered everything abut them, about their relationship, about, their newness. "Why do you insist on waking me up every time I fall asleep somewhere that isn't a bed?" She asked, a softness in her big brown eyes.

Maura kept her arm at her shoulder. "Because when you are an old woman I'd prefer not having to say I told you so."

"We both know you're going to take care of me anyway."

Maura let herself be amused by that thought. Yes, she did know that. "Why are you here?" She asked again and watched the softness in Jane's features harden some before the detective cleared her throat.

"Uniforms who were on the union rep's house lost him. He left money, his passport, clothes…"

"He left in a hurry."

"Thinkin' it's because we found the third body."

"Just hours ago though, and that crime scene was anything but original." Maura shook her head.

"Someone screwed up."

"Hm."

"He's gotta come back if he wants to get anywhere away from Boston. Nina is tracking his credit cards, his business accounts, some close friends." She adjusted herself to lean on her elbow as she spoke. "Frankie is on first shift watching his place, Korsak and I will tomorrow morning."

Maura shook her head. "This seems so… Unorganized."

"We're missing something," Jane agreed before laying back down completely. "Now leave me alone, woman."

Maura chuckled and looked down at her. "Come, sleep in a bed."

Jane shook her head. "Maura I'm already warm here." She whined. "You know how long it takes to warm up that guestroom? Those sheets are the worst." She closed her eyes again.

"You're cold in there? How come you've never mentioned it… Jane?" She had started to fake snore. "Jane."

Jane huffed. "Maura for the love of TJ, c'mon, just let me sleep here." She opened her eyes. "I'll be gone before you get up."

"Fine, yes." Maura didn't look pleased, but she seemed to make it so she understood, she'd allow Jane this she supposed. "Would you like a blanket?"

Jane nodded. "Thank you." And with that she watched as Maura stood and disappeared upstairs before bringing the very blanket from her own bed (because her ambient body temperature had already warmed it) and brought it down to drape over Jane's shoulders. The homicide detective let out a small chuckle as Maura worked meticulously to tuck all the loose areas of fabric in under her legs.

"I want to make it so you cannot move." Maura's joked quietly as she worked.

Jane peered at her above the thick blanket adoringly. "I can see that."

"It is the best way to trap the heat." She tucked the large end of the blanket under Jane's leg carefully. "Although if you consider thermodynamics it's only a substitute for the more reliable form of human transference…"

"What's that?" Jane yawned.

"Well, it is the idea that the rate of heat transferred from one body to another increases with the difference in temperature between them. Consequently, the rate of heat lost from a human to the surrounding very cold ambient environment is lower than the rate of heat lost from a human to another human." She tucked in the last part of the blanket and smiled at how her best friend now resembled a burrito.

"So two bodies are better than one?" Jane hesitated before maneuvering the edge of the blanket up exposing her torso to Maura. "Get in here before I die or something." She had missed her googling and with a week so far filled with small failures, another life lost, and the increasing statistics with each passing moment that they had lost their key suspect Jane just wanted to be close to the other woman where things made much better sense.

Maura blushed. "Jane you won't die."

Jane kept her arm up. "If I do you're going to feel really bad." She began to feel a little nervous, it was after all a bold request. "What are you going to sleep with if I have your blanket?" She scooted back flesh against the couch to show that there was room enough for her.

There were other blankets in the house… That's not what Maura said though, she also wasn't wearing underwear, she decided not to say that either. "Okay." Maura waited a moment to have her actions reflect her agreement before sitting back down on the edge of the sofa. "This wasn't built for sleeping on." Surely not two people. It lacked all logic really, but there was this boyish twinkle of a dare in Jane's eyes that Maura found herself blushing at in the dark. The Rizzoli's could be so damn charming when it suited them.

"What was it built for? Lounging?" Jane patted the space in front of her while still keeping the blanket raised in invitation.

"it isn't so much that warmth is being "given" from one to the other. In terms of thermodynamics." Maura nodded as she extended her legs out along the couch beside Jane's suit clad legs and then gingerly rested her back against Jane's chest as she laid down. She could feel Jane's heart racing at their closeness, but all that showed on the exterior was Jane sweetly covering her up with her and letting an arm naturally drape over her waist above the cover. "For example even if both people have been out in the cold for a long time, they will be better off huddling together to mitigate the deleterious heat loss rather than create it." Her face was hot with blush and she were grateful to be staring at her dark television set than Jane's face.

They had never done this before.

"That makes sense." Jane's voice was so close to her ear that the simple science of hearing caused her to shiver, there was a depth to it, a raspiness, that Maura had always loved that also apparently did things to her when lowered to an octave only meant for her ears to hear. It distracted her from whatever Jane was saying now.

Words she supposed, lovely warm, tickly, words. Words she could feel in her stomach, which made no physiological sense. Yet there they were, rumbling about, nestling in her gut, meeting her, knowing her.

Jane soon fell quiet when she got no response from the ME to her question.

They had never done this before.

A long moment passed with them awkwardly laying pressed together on Maura's sofa as if there were no other beds in the stately home. Jane thought then that maybe if she did in fact die because of hypothermia this would be by far the best way to go; her senses drowned in everything Maura. She let out a soft breath and held it when she realized Maura had shivered in response to the cool air. This close, everything the other did had a physical effect. It was a lesson she were glad to learn quickly. "Is this okay?" Jane whispered finally not wanting to push her best friend like the last time they were this close.

Maura's eyes had already closed, it was all so much and not nearly enough all at the same time. "Yes." She responded quietly. "It is… Comforting." She looked over her shoulder at Jane. "Intimate." She never really did this.

Jane nodded. "My hand can stay here?" She lifted her right hand that was draped over her waist.

Their eyes met in the dark. "I'd prefer it."

Jane grinned softly. "Okay.. Like this?" The taller of the two moved her arm for emphasis and blushed faintly when Maura took it and fashioned it over the covers closer to the area under her breasts.

"Like this." The blonde instructed liking the feel of Jane's strong arm closer to her upper torso, holding her in place against her. Maura blushed at their position. "Is that okay?" She asked quickly.

Jane nodded "Perfect."

Maura shyly looked away before looking back over her shoulder. How could she describe what she was feeling to her best friend? "Before…" She stared in front of her watching the blank tv now. "At your apartment?"

Jane nodded fully understanding. "Now?" Maura nodded. Jane tried to think of something to say to help Maura understand that the feeling was erasable. "I'm me, it's just me Maura." She whispered onto the back of her neck.

And funny enough with that realization all awkwardness evaporated leaving nothing but the memory of its presence in its dear wake. Jane could feel Maura relax fully against her and for the briefest moment they simply existed for each other.

This was that scary intimacy. That thing Maura wasn't sure she could do "properly" – Well it sure felt right to Jane, sure felt better than any friendly thing they had ever shared, no this was solid, being here with Maura so close, pressed into her like this… It made Jane feel there existed a sudden meaning in everything, and no true end to anything. They just clicked.

As she stared ahead Maura's hazel eyes grew softer and softer at the obvious thing of just how she felt for the other woman holding her. Jane would always belong to the people she served, but this, Maura wanted this part, the best, most beautiful part of Jane in her opinion, she wanted it all to herself, selfishly so, and if Jane would grant her that, she would give her anything her heart desired and then some.

It was a feeling so sudden her heart could barely contain it.

Once named it belonged to other feelings, associated itself with responsibility, became a thing that she needed to be honest about, and they had promised one another honesty among all else.

Maura turned to face Jane fully under the covers surprising the detective only briefly, their knees adjusted to the and their breasts slightly impressed with the others, the couch was not at all made for such a movement but Maura wanted to do this properly. "May I have this part?" She asked just below a whisper. She found Jane's warm eyes and held them before reaching forward and touching her collarbone. Jane would understand her question. She was certain of it in fact.

Jane watched her carefully for a moment before nodding once. "It's been yours, Maura." She whispered back, there was a seriousness in her features that softened emotionally when she spoke again. "It's always been… For you." Maura let her hand run up her collarbone to Jane's cheek and leaned forward enough to kiss her softly. When it was over Jane swallowed something and glanced at her. "All I could ever want, Maur is for you to be happy… To be safe." Her voice slightly hoarse.

Maura touched her face and leaned back in and pressed a longer kiss on Jane's lips, a kiss that Jane responded to almost immediately. It made the medical examiner weak in the knees and gratify to be lying down. It was the kind of kiss that stirred something between them.

It caused another kiss, and another, until it was hard to tell which had really been the last. Their breaths became labored as they tried to keep track, and it wasn't until Maura was made very aware about how naked she was under her robe by Jane's hands grazing the material between them and secretly wanting her to undo it that she knew they had to stop. Maura put a hand to Jane's face again and made a small noise. Jane made a small noise in return but when Maura opened her eyes to try and calm the frustration she could sense in both their bodies she was met with a small goofed smirk on her best friend's flushed face.

For the intense physical moment they just shared it was completely out of place and almost offending.

"What?"

"You're not wearing a bra are you?"

If she got any redder Maura couldn't tell, but she laughed and bunched up the covers between them. "Jane!"

"How am I not supposed to notice!"

"I'm going to my own bed—"

"No c'mon." Jane pulled her closer above the covers. All her problems and responsibilities momentarily forgotten. "Stay."

"We can't sleep like this." Maura motioned to their limbs as Jane pulled her into another small kiss. "We can't."

The next morning Jane woke to several stimuli all at once: the coldness in her toes as her socked feet dangled over the edge of the sofa's armrest, the faint and vaguely familiar buzzing sensation near her ribcage, the pinning and stinging loss of sensation in her left arm, but most distracting to the detective was the intoxicating aroma of lavender and mountain herbs, and the incredible warmth generated at her torso from tenderly spooning Maura from behind.

Maura

A woman who at this point had yet to wake even in spite of Jane's jostling to free her left arm from a self-imposed amputation from under her. Jane had already sat up as best as she could and took a moment to smile at her sleeping so deeply. She had never actually seen Maura in a deep sleep.

The buzzing continued.

Jane rubbed at her face and reached her hand into her wrinkled blazer pocket where her cell phone was. "Rizzoli." She rasped. Jane winced at the voice on the other line. "Shit no…I went to Maura's Korsak sorry I forgot to tell you….yeah I can be ready…okay, I'll see you soon." Jane hung up the phone and checked her watch. She wasn't technically late, but the plan had been for Vince to swing by her place so they only needed to swap out one car with Frankie for their turn to steak out Sal D'Alisio's house in case the sleaze ball showed up to get his run money.

With another clearing of the throat Jane wiggled herself out from between Maura and the couch, holstered her firearm and went into the kitchen for a glass of water as she tried to straighten the rather unprofessional wrinkles in her suit.

Before leaving she approached the couch again and leaned down to place a long kiss on Maura's cheek. Her heart swelled when pathologist sleepily put up a cool hand to touch her cheek mid-way through but let it drop soon after in favor of sleep again.

##

Jane sipped from her soft drink straw. "He's got a lot of shoe to fill."

Korsak nodded as he reached for the center console for a french fry. "I think he'll get it."

"We were all green once." Jane nodded before sitting back in the passenger seat of Vince's unmarked and sighing. She was tired of sitting on her hands, they had been out here on a chilly morning in Boston for several hours watching Sal D'Alisio's house, she could tell though that Korsak was gunning for this guy by just how annoyingly by the book he was being. "Anyway let's see if he can get anything out of Alberto Albert."

Korsak chuckled. "Heard they spent forty bucks buying him breakfast."

Jane shook her head and motioned her soft drink toward her partner. "Why are you laughing, that's coming out of your budget."

Korsak's face fell when he realized it. "Sometimes it pays to be inferior."

Jane phone began ringing then. She fished it out of her suit pocket and couldn't help her smile. "Hey Maura." She answered.

"Jane hello, Good Morning." It was professional, she must have already arrived to work.

Jane glanced at Korsak who was watching the house they were a few cars away from. "I'm on a steak-out with Korsak still, whatdya got?"

"I was unable to reach you when I got I because of a few things that came up however when I had a moment I realized our tests from my initial autopsy have come through."

"Let me put you on speaker." Jane nudged Korsak and motioned to her phone. "Aright."

"Hi Doc." Vince waved before realizing it was a cell phone.

"Sargent Detective, Good Morning."

"Is it still morning. Jane and I are already on lunch."

Maura could remember feeling Jane kiss her goodbye, that was at least four hours before she had to wake up to be ready and on time for work. "You both had an early start."

"Did you happen to get an ID on our Jane Doe?" He asked reaching for another french fry.

Maura stepped into her office clad in her medical examiner's lab coat and closed the door behind her. "Yes, her name is Carly Mason, aged twenty-three."

"Twenty-three." Jane shook her head at her partner. "Either he's escalading and is breaking victimology because of the dryness of the well of well-to-do rich ladies or this isn't our guy."

"I thought so as well Jane." Maura interrupted. "There was identical bruising postmortem and antemortem just as Hanover and Turner however toxicology indicates she was drugged with flunitrazepam. We are still awaiting the rape kit."

Jane shook her head. "She was roofied?"

Maura took a seat at her desk and opened a file that confirmed it. "I'm afraid so."

"This can't be our guy." Jane shook her head.

Korsak motioned to a red sedan turning onto the block. "Maybe a friend?" They had seen it passing the house an hour earlier.

"Why Mason though?"

"Different tastes?"

"Maybe…" Jane watched the car and then Korsak. She nodded and then took her phone off speaker and brought it to her ear as they both got out of the car. "I'll talk to you later Maura." She promised before hanging up and slowly approaching the now stopped vehicle in the middle of the street. Behind the wheel a woman, the same one they saw earlier, her features were worn, she was wearing a simple house dress in the middle of a winter revival and looked as if she had been slapped about one to many times to properly hide it, she also looked like she lost the shame to either.

Jane stepped around to the driver's side of the vehicle and waited for Korsak to stand directly in front the vehicle before knocking gently on te glass. The brunette hesitated but then let the window down some. "Y-yes?"

"Hi there Ma'am I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli, is everything okay?" She asked politely. When the woman only stared Jane motioned to Korsak. "See me and my partner were just having lunch and we noticed your car again, are you lost? You in need of some help?"

The woman looked shaken and continued to dart her eyes into the back seat. Which Jane had long since confirmed was unoccupied. The woman looked up at her finally, her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips crackled dry. Jane glanced at her fingernails and noticed the thin layer of dirt pitched underneath them.

"Maybe just looks like you're headed home, maybe got lost?" Jane asked for her attention again and when the other woman looked at her there was a flicker of panic in her eyes. "Maybe that's all right?" Jane nodded at her once as she reached her left hand slowly to her waist.

"Y-yes. That's it." The woman gripped the steering wheel firmly. "I-I'm just headed home."

She wanted to cry, Jane could hear it in her voice. "This your house right here?" She motioned to the union rep's house. Korask was already walking slowly toward the side entrance of the home to unlatch the side gate. His eyes never leaving Jane's figure, but he had to trust that her instincts were right on this one and she had given him their signal twice now.

The driver nodded quickly at Jane. "Alright ma'am, well I'm glad you were able to make it home." She glanced toward the back of the car for a long moment before lowering her voice considerably. "If you're in any trouble ma'am you gotta let me know...something, anything." She nodded, her firearm pulled from it's holster now. "You have a good one." She said loudly as tears started to well in the older woman's eyes.

That's all the confirmation Jane needed. She put up the two fingers in a universal show of asking for two minutes before as quickly and as quietly as she could darting toward the open side gate Korsak was holding open for her. He closed the gate gently and pulled out his firearm as well.

"He's in the trunk." Jane confirmed.

"Then we have two seconds to find a way into the house."

Jane held her gun with both hands as she searched the single wall in front of them littered with an overgrowth of forgotten plants and weeds before motioning to a window. The house looked perfectly prim and proper from the outside, Jane supposed having second lives only really left you enough time to maintain the front of your home, the part that everyone could see. "There." The two darted for it as they heard the car turning into the drive.

Jane bit her lip in frustration when the abnormal chill and rainy season had fashioned the usually flimsy latch to the window shut. "Fuck." She cursed.

Korsak pushed past her. "Go toward the front."

Jane motioned to the small bedroom window Vince was prying open. "You can't fit through that thing." Vince paused and looked at her over his shoulder. "The front, yes sir." She ran back the way they came and swallowed a lump of cold air when she realized the red sedan had been parked and long since vacated. Jane made quick and calculated strides to the front door watching the street at her six o'clock every half second. She pressed her ear to the thick wood of the front door and heard muffled voices, one male, one female. She took a breath now and sent a silent prayer to her partner before knocking innocently on the front door.

All movement inside the house stilled and Jane pressed her back to the door while evening out her breath and making her body ridged.

"Who's there?" The male voice barked.

She squeezed her vocal chords as hard as she could "It's uh—" Jane glanced about the neighboring yards until she noticed a decorative licenses plate across the street. "It's Carol."

"I'm a little busy Carol." He brought his tall frame toward the door and looked out the peep hole. "Come back some other time…" He paused and squinted, he could just make out Carols shoulder, and either she got approved for the gastric bypass surgery or someone was trying to trick him. "Come back some other time." He repeated, a panic rising. He reached for a crow bar sitting behind the door but dropped it with a clank when something heavy hit the middle of his back. He turned and growled at the now broken dining room chair. "You little bitch!"

Jane could hear a woman scream inside. "Son of a bitch. " She mumbled as she quickly backed up from the door and took a second to position herself. "Alright Frost, help me out man." She exhaled quickly and bolted toward the door pivoting her weight forward and kicking the wooden frame at its weakest point right under the lock.

If she were lucky they hadn't deadbolted the damn thing.


	22. Chapter 22

Jane winced heavily as she leaned into the shattered front door frame to give her the leverage she needed to take a step out and onto the small entry steps.

"You okay?"

She looked behind her at Korsak taking off his blazer and tossed him a small grin. "You gonna make it with half that jacket or should we get you a BPD poncho?" His face was red, and he was slightly out of breath but Jane supposed she looked a lot worse for wear being that she and the union rep literally wrestled on the ground for a few laborious moments while the woman driving the car screamed before taking off straight out the front door. Korsak appeared moments later with gun raised and the longest piece of fabric trailing behind him apparently caught in the windows teeth.

He chuckled but glanced over her shoulder at the now crowded parking area swimming with first responders and uniformed officers. "Let's make sure we find her."

Jane nodded as she hopped onto the bottom step and rolled her shoulders some. "I already sent Frankie out to lead the search, she wasn't wearing shoes, she couldn't have gotten too far." They fell into step beside one another; Korsak slowing his pace a half step to meet Jane's hobble.

"We need to find something in this house to connect him to those other women…"

Jane nodded and looked around the front of the house. The backyard hadn't really been well maintained, nor the side of the house, but the front looked as if it were any old house on the street. "Can we match any dirt from here with the types we found under the victim's nails?"

Korsak flopped his blazer over his shoulder and reached into his pocket for his cell phone. "I'll see how that interview went with Alberto Albert then ask Nina to get that report on our cell phones somehow."

Jane quirked a brow. "Somehow?"

Vince shrugged. "You think I know how the hell to do it?" He brought his cell phone to his ear. "Nina, It's Vince—"

Jane hobbled over to where two crime scene techs were moving about the red car the union rep had been stowed away in. "Let's make sure we get everything." She nodded and to which they nodded as well. This case wasn't a low interest case anymore, any morsel of evidence would be critical at piecing this whole thing together. The union rep had suddenly lost his inability to speak aside for asking for his lawyer of course, and that woman had run away from the only people that could help her.

They needed something.

Jane slowly made her way over to the ambulance and hopped up onto the back of the truck to wait for one of the paramedics to come back and clear her. Korsak hadn't demanded it, but the last thing she needed was him pulling rank and making her go to the actual hospital to take care of it, that would be a day lost waiting in waiting rooms and worse than water boarding in her opinion.

While perched on the truck she shot a quick text to Maura asking about the status of the ID for the Jane Doe they found last night and then adding that they made an arrest and that everyone was okay before calling her brother.

"Janie—"

"You find her?"

"Not yet."

"Find her Frankie, we need her statement."

"I'm on it."

"She took off west—"

"—You told me that already."

Jane chuckled to herself. "Well alright." They hung up just in time for a familiar paramedic with greying temples and a dimpled chin approached the back of the truck with his emergency bag.

"Rizzoli." He greeted.

"Sign off that I'm good?" She asked sweetly.

He shook his head with a chuckle as he set his tools beside her. "Are you?"

"What's with all these questions?"

He put his hands on his hips. "I put in to work at that facility in Southie, Dr. Isles would be my boss."

She motioned to her leg where the throbbing pain was happening right below her knee. "What you want me to put in a good word for you?" Harrison gingerly began assessing the area.

"No I don't need a good word, I need her to know I take my job seriously."

Jane inhaled sharply as he pressed down. "Uhuh."

"So that means I can't just sign off on your clearances anymore, Rizzoli." He motioned for her to take her boot off, there was some liquid between her joints that concerned him, it could just be because of the trauma but he wanted to be sure.

Jane leaned forward to oblige the silent request. "What's our rule? If it's fallen off of broken I got to the hospital."

He nodded. " But now—"

"Now?"

"Yeah now, if it's scraped, bleeding, shot—"

Jane rolled her eyes but she could not deny how hilarious this whole thing was. "You know I can just tell her that you're a kiss ass."

Her boot had been removed and her pant leg rolled up. "Yeah I'm okay with that." He pressed gently against her swollen joint and nodded to himself. "Yup, hospital."

"You're joking right?" Jane looked at him for the first time in eight years as if he were the enemy.

"Jane it's definitely swollen, whatever you did has caused some muscle, I don't know which one, to bruise. If it's the meniscus-"

"The wha?"

"The meniscus, it's not uncommon but you'd better have a bruised one instead of a torn one, because if it's torn you're unfit for duty."

Jane hopped down from the back of the ambulance truck causing Harrison to sigh. "I don't like this change in our relationship, Harry."

"It's not you, it's me?"

Jane nodded at him pointedly and picked up her boot and began to hobble off. "Sure."

Harrison laughed. "Where are you going?"

Jane waved her boot at him. "To the hospital. No way I'm going in a bus."

"We'd get there faster."

"Says who?"

Harrison waved before shaking his head in amazement. She was tough, he'd give her that.

##

Jane dug the spoon back into the thick brown substance and nodded at the phone on her lap before scooping out the remains of her fourth pudding cup and stuck it into her mouth and waited for the tiny spike she got from the sugar rush.

Hospitals weren't that bad…

"Alright so what the hell is he saying?" She asked after taking the spoon out of her mouth and using it as a guide to read a case file opened out on the starchy hospital bed before her.

"Lawyer was saying that he didn't know anything—"

Jane huffed and waved her pudding spoon at the phone. "Bullshit, then why was he in the trunk of the car, Vince?"

Korsak's voice came across somewhat grainy as he was using his car's speaker phone. He currently was on his way to tell 23-year-old Fiona Dorciti's family that she was found dead in the park last night and that they had no real leads to speak of. "Said he knew he wouldn't get a fair trial."

"That sounds like an admission of guilt."

"We can't force him to comment."

"Alright so now what?"

"My gut says he didn't do the first two—"

"The first two?" Jane rested the empty pudding cup beside the others on the medical table to her immediate right before picking up another one and tearing it open. You think Dorciti was him?"

Korsak shrugged as he drove. "Something was very off about finding her, some things just didn't add up." The body being moved, the lack of stab wounds like the other victims, an assault occurred that was for sure, but the ME's techs confirmed it wasn't sexual in nature. She hadn't been held captive either. The missing person's report from the girl's family had been filed that morning. She was an outlier, an incidental, someone somewhere messed up, and it made complete sense for the union rep to try and skip town because of it. They just had to figure out why.

"I know. I don't think he planned them, or even helped, but I think he had a hand with being able to keep it from us."

"So what do you think, obstruction?"

"Yeah, and assaulting an officer."

"What'd they say?"

Jane looked at her left leg propped up. "Really bad bruising I guess."

"No tear."

"No."

"Well then take the night, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Call me if you get anything, if Frankie and the guys find her."

"I will." Jane hung up and began to eat the new pudding cup as she went over the reports she knew by heart to try and make some kind of connection between all these women and the dock workers. She became so engrossed with scrutinizing every detail that she hadn't noticed Maura standing in the doorway to the room and watching her until she reached over to open a new pudding cup. Jane paused as their eyes met before becoming very self-conscious. Maura clad in a simple yet timeless work dress the color of some sort of metal had her red coat over her arm with her hair down cascading honey all over her shoulders. (it was getting quite long) Jane wondered briefly how she felt about it before taking in her own appearance. She was wearing a white tank top and a mens small drawstring hospital pant. Her hair was oily and in a pony tail and she was pretty sure she had spilled pudding on her arm ten minutes ago but unfortunately something had caught her specific attention and she was only now rubbing it off.

"Don't tell Ma."

Taking it as an invitation Maura stepped into the small room and smiled softly. "Which part?" She watched Jane's left leg extended out with a soft medical brace about the knee before looking at her face again.

Jane felt her cheek tug gently into a smile too. They hadn't seen each other since last night really and it was as if she had just remembered what it felt like having Maura pressed into her so close, or what kissing her felt like, or what waking up with her felt like. "The pudding." She clarified motioning to the five empty containers. "Said this stuff would make our teeth fall out of our mouths as kids." Jane watched Maura frown at the pile of empty cups before looking back at her. 'It's really my favorite, but I can never tell her that so…"

"You eat—" Maura picked up one of the empty cups to read the ingredient label and did the short math in her head. "Eight hundred and fifty milligrams of sodium to...?"

"Rebel?"

"Ah." Maura put the empty pudding cup down and moved the small table aside to sit down on a stool beside the bed. With her coat and purse she looked slightly uncomfortable and Jane was about to offer her a seat on the edge of the bed but she realized it was littered with case statements, findings, and crime scene photographs. "I spoke to your doctor."

"Why?" Jane asked as she tried to organize the area, a spoon jutting out from the side of her mouth.

"You consistently oversimplify your injuries."

Jane moved a folder aside and then decided to just close it. "Not all the time."

"Yes." All of the time.

The taller of the two finished her organizing of the folders into a small stack and brought her attention back to Maura. "Well you sometimes don't talk about yours at all." She took the spoon out of her mouth and gave her a pointed look.

Maura's mouth twitched to crease her right dimple, she was amused. "You're in an observant mood today."

Jane grinned and merely shrugged. There would usually be a following quip about her line of work but to be honest she was too busy feeling all sorts of wobblily fuzzy things seeing her best friend. "They said I could go, they tell you that?"

Maura nodded once. "You could stay the night, eat more…" She motioned to the stack of empty pudding cups. "Processed hydrogenated gelatin, rest."

Jane looked away toward her knee. "We're close, this union rep knows who did this." She looked back at Maura. "We have him in holding now. Tomorrow in the box."

"Has he said anything about the driver?" Maura leaned her elbow against her knee and then smiled a little when Jane leaned over the bedding and began to fuss over her coat and handbag to bring them onto the bed where she had made space. "Thank you."

"Mhm." Jane situated her bag beside her and then shook her head. "He's just asking for his lawyer, we got him for assault though. Frankie'll find her."

"It's interesting that she would run away."

"Is it? I mean if you could see the look on her face when we approached the car, Maur." Jane watched as Maura fell into thought over the current events. She liked that sometimes, when other people would just continue to ask question after question about her work, as if the information she provided somehow didn't match whatever they had expected, Maura would take her time with the process like a real detective would she sat through it, turned it over until the conclusions she was able to come up with lead to a follow up question that actually challenged Jane to think of another prospective.

When your brain was as big as Maura's that process usually lasted milliseconds, maybe even less, but tonight the ME glazed over the information as if glitched, her brow furrowed slightly.

She was tired.

"I don't believe I would run away from the police if they were there to help me." Maura decided before looking back up at Jane. "Unless the danger of getting caught outweighed whatever temporary safety law enforcement could provide."

Jane rolled her jaw some. "Could mean who ever is pulling the strings has a far enough reach…"

"Have you reached out to Dr. Fraser and alerted her of the case?"

Dr, Fraser was BPD's resident psychologist. "For when we find the driver?"

"Absolutely. Her behavior suggests a severe psychological relapse or trauma."

Jane stuck her spoon into the new pudding cup she was holding before shaking her head. "Something tells me the answer is the most obvious one."

"Commit." Maura offered.

Jane ate a spoon full of the thick sugary snack and then shrugged. "I'm finding it hard to." She admitted in a tone Maura couldn't read. She ate another spoonful. "We'll get 'em though."

Maura noted the change from noun to plural noun. "After this recent victim you've adopted my theory?"

"The multiple assailants? Was that your theory?" Jane raised a brow. "Or was it my theory that you stole."

Maura chuckled. "We can't share a theory?"

"No, I'm a cop." She pointed to herself with the plastic hospital spoon. "and you're a brainaic."

"Why couldn't an exceptionally intelligent individual come up with the same theory?"

Jane shrugged. "Cause this is the same exceptionally intelligent individual that asked me if I'd eat my friends."

Maura only shook her head at her antics. "I did not ask you if you'd eat your friends—"

Jane continued eating "—Yeah, alright, Maura—"

"—I simply asked if you would consider eating someone anonymously."

"And that makes this conversation credible?" Jane asked feigning seriousness. The sudden twist and puckering of her lips gave her away though, she was seconds from bursting.

Maura sighed heavily feigning annoyance and as a comfortable quietness fell upon them both women wondered if the other would be okay goofing around with them indefinitely. Like was that even a possibility in the others mind? Because in all actuality where did they go from here? How did they end it if they did? Why would they?

Jane looked down at her disappearing pudding cup. "You sleep okay last night?" She asked suddenly, daring a glance at Maura who had seemed to be broken out of some amusing thought to hear it. Their eyes met and Jane could feel the tips of her ears burn when Maura tilted her head slightly, eyes filling with a teasing she was not even remotely ready to endure.

"I did. You're quite comfortable." The pathologist watched as Jane's lip tugged into the most adorable little smile she had even seen the other woman wear, it made her want to kiss her.

"I slept real deep." Jane admitted quietly.

"Did you?" She matched her tone.

Jane nodded and looked at her pudding again. "Just uh, wear a bra next time alright?"

Maura chuckled softly, a furious blush consuming her. "Yes, I can do that, Jane."

"Christ."

They grinned at one another.

##

"I don't think there is enough coffee in the world to keep me standing today."

Maura looked up from stirring in her latte and smiled at Nina Holiday clad in a pair of skinny black pants, a slightly oversized button down and one of her charcoal colored vests. "Do you know you have all said that to me in the past hour, that exact phrase?"

The other woman was working to open the lid of her coffee cup but paused to toss Maura a goofy expression. "I have not used my own bathroom in two days, two days Maura."

The ME chuckled. "I have a toiletries in my office if you ever need it."

Nina poured in some milk in her coffee and then hesitated before reaching for two packets of sugar. It wasn't how she usually took her coffee at all, but she had just had so much of it at this point that she needed a change of flavor. "You're very kind, and obnoxiously rested, thank you."

Maura put the lid back onto he latte carefully and glanced behind them to see if there was a table free. "Join me?"

"Yeah girl of course, I was trying to avoid Jane."

Maura chuckled. "Do I want to know?"

"Well truth be told I'm trying to avoid them all, Frankie included." She joked as they wordlessly navigated the tight quarters of the Division One Café during a morning rush. There was a high-top table that an officer finishing his coffee leapt at the opportunity to offer them.

"Why are you avoiding them?" Maura had just got into work a half hour ago and had run into the everyone but the person she was hoping to not have to make an excuse to see, because that would be juvenile, and Maura wasn't sure why she feared such levels of thinking, but she did. Last night she and Jane hung out in the safety of the tiny hospital room until the detective got a call from Frankie. She was dressed and out the door in seconds but there was a thank you in there and a kiss on the cheek Maura carried with her all the way home.

"They've been here all night going over past cases hoping something triggers their memory so we could ID that driver, and if you ask me there has gotta be something—maybe some kind of preservative they are putting in those files down in evidence so the mice don't eat it or something because their all a little loopy right now. I needed a break."

Maura smiled knowingly. "Research by the Library of Congress has demonstrated that cellulose itself generates acids as it ages."

Nina raised a brow. "Really?"

Maura nodded. "Measurable quantities of acids were observed to form under ambient conditions within weeks of the paper's manufacture. However paper does not readily release these acids due to strong intermolecular bonding."

"So they really could be intoxicated?"

Maura chuckled. "Not critically?"

Nina laughed. "Well your girl is on a whole new level, she wants these guys bad, Korsak too." She took another sip of her coffee. "Feel bad for the clerk down there. I guess they have to let him go home after forty hours of OT…"

 _Her girl_

Maura never quite enjoyed the term at all, finding it possessive in nature and patriarchal at best, Jane was a woman, and she was her own woman… but hearing it now, well she found she kind of liked the idea that Nina would think there was some sort of exclusivity between them, that Jane was _her_ Jane.

"I think she fears that if the work isn't done before tonight then she'd have let you all down." It was way more than she would offer normally. Speaking for others or attempting to know how they felt seemed improper, but Maura was sure from working side by side with Jane for years now Nina already knew she wasn't receiving anything new.

If anything, it spoke to how comfortable the ME felt around Nina now.

Nina nodded. "You fly out for New York tomorrow morning, right?"

Maura reached for her latte. "Yes, Jane in the afternoon."

"Well we'll make sure she doesn't show up here poking around too late." Her smile grew. "Or you could just take me instead?"

Maura laughed. "If Jane misses her flight—"

"—A real possibility."

She shook her head not even wanting to entertain the idea. "I will end her.' It was Nina's turn to laugh now. "however it would not surprise me, I've been brought to such places before." If she hadn't asked Jane wouldn't have even booked her flight.

"Do you have a lot to do today?"

Maura sighed with a small smile. "Yes, to be gone for a week usually wouldn't be too much of a burden but we have a lab inspection coming while I'm away." If she had to get on her hands and knees to scrub the place tonight she'd do it, her romper was in the car.

"Nothing compared to our firearm evaluations." Maura raised a brow. "You're doubting me politely aren't you?"

The ME laughed again. "No, I just… wouldn't be sure how to compare them."

"Well." Nina put her coffee cup down. "When you have Bucky Norton as your examiner, I bet even you would be wishing you weren't who you were."

"He sounds intimidating."

"Hi girls."

Both Nina and Maura looked up to see none other than Angela Rizzoli clad in a smart looking skirt suit with her hair pulled back into a bun.

"Moma Rizz." Nina greeted before tossing Maura a questioning look, though far from geriatric jumpers she had never seen her future mother in law dressed so academically before.

"Angela, what a surprise." Maura smiled.

Angela held her purse straps and looked around at the busy café. "It's always so weird being here and not having to help." She chuckled softly before looking at the other two women. "Jane wasn't by last night—"

"N-no she was here, working the case." She looked at Nina for help.

Nina raised a brow at Maura's small stutter because Maura never stuttered but then quickly fell in line with the story with a long nod. "Yup, we're making progress but it's been a long one." So no one had told Angela about the arrest it seemed.

"Oh." Angela looked a little disappointed. "I wanted to speak to her last night but… is Frankie here too?"

"Is everything okay, Angela?" Maura asked carefully.

"Sean called me a few days ago about a temporary opportunity with those teenagers you have come follow Janie around every year. He wanted me to show them around instead." She announced proudly. "Something about Janie's lack of hospitality, who knows."

"You and Lieutenant Cavanaugh speak regularly?" Maura couldn't help but be curious.

Nina raised a brow. "Mhm, hospitality."

"Oh you two stop. I had so much fun with it last time, you know those kids helped me with my last garage sale, which may I remind you was a hit."

"Well I am sure the team would appreciate one less responsibility." Maura looked to Nina who nodded

"Which reminds me, I'd better get back down there." She slid off of her chair easily and grabbed her coffee cup. "I'll tell Jane and Frankie you're here."

"Thanks honey."

Maura watched as the two women embraced quickly before Nina pushed her way through the morning rush and toward the main lobby elevators. Angela watched her go too with a soft expression on her face before turning to look at Maura.

"She's going to be a beautiful bride." Angela climbed into the seat across from her. "You know by now years ago I'd expected to be swimming in grandchildren." Her laugh was lighthearted. "What a thought!"

Maura smiled and reached for her latte. "I'd imagined myself with at least one noble prize in forensic pathology, possibly a third PHD."

Angela gave her a look, the kind of look that Maura knew was affectionate in nature but confused in practice, she'd come to really be fond of that look, it was set aside for her alone and the ME supposed that made it special. "Life is funny." Maura made a small noise of agreement as the bitter sweetness of her coffee overwhelmed her senses a moment. "I couldn't imagine it any differently than it is now though, you kids, TJ, Ron…"

Maura watched her face change at the other man's name. "You care a great deal for him." She tilted her head. "Does _Sean_ know?"

Angela seemed surprised by the banter but welcomed it with rosy cheeks. "When you get to become my age Maura you'll realize that a little attention every now and then never hurt a good thing." They shared a small laugh. "Anyway, are you girls excited for your trip? Have you packed? What can I make for dinner tonight?"

Maura smile softened and her cheeks had the slightest appearance of a blush. "We're really looking forward to seeing Tasha."

"You deserve a break, I have no idea what you said to Janie to make her change her mind about going."

"Neither do I." She admitted honestly, Jane had explained it as a gesture of sorts but even after their first real kiss she wasn't sure what action, reaction, or statement was made on her behalf to allow such a gesture to even come about. She wished she could know, could understand it, she'd use it as often as she wanted, it was shameless yes, but Jane… Jane made her feel irregular and exceptional all at the same time.

"Well anyway since she listens to you I need you to do me a favor and make sure she's not thinking about work or any of us, that she's having a good time hm?" Maura nodded. She could do that. "Also I know that hunk Agent Davies will be in town too."

Maura's smile faltered slightly. She had completely forgotten about him. "Yes."

"Has she mentioned seeing him at all?"

"I… Don't recall specifically." Had Jane?

Angela waved her off. "Anyway, one date, for me?"

Maura blinked. "I—"

"After Charles and the baby, I feel like Jane has really closed herself off, more work, more responsibility. Then this whole depression thing. Now I know I'm her mother and she thinks I ought to mind my own business, but she is my business, they don't need to get married, Lord knows Janie rather sit in a car for hours watching some hooligan but, maybe a date? You'll ask her?"

Ask Jane if she would entertain the idea of going on a date with Agent Cameron Davies?

Because she and Davies had had chemistry before and because Angela caught on to that, and because Maura was her best friend and of course should want to see her friend happy with someone.

Because that's how it was supposed to be.

Jane had never really gone into how she felt about Davies… The ME recalled Angela bringing him up a few weeks ago after they all went to the movies together, that was before their first date of course, and if she strained the pathologist could remember the casualness in Jane's sleepy tone when mentioning they had been in communication.

Then the warmness in her voice and feeling of her touch on the couch… Feeling was such an obtuse way to describe absorbing the events of the other night. The idea that to feel was to passively be prone to external forces seemed critically inaccurate. Maura didn't feel Jane's arms around her, not simply at least, her whole being could register it, could understand it, and Jane's breath on her neck, she somehow was sure she could metabolize it.

Jane didn't care for Davies the way she cared for her, Maura was certain of it.

An all to familiar irritation vibrated at the back of her throat signaling the sudden danger she was soon to find herself in.

Maura couldn't lie to Angela, but the truth though beautiful, was not her truth to tell alone.

"I can see if he's still an interest." The irritation turned into an itch she attempted to chase away with warm espresso and milk. "Perhaps your bolognaises tonight. It's my favorite." She attempted.

Angela's smile grew wide. "How could I say no? Eight thirty? Do you think Jane will be out?"

Maura bit the inside of her mouth. "I'm not certain, would you mind if I invited Hope?" Maura was surprised at herself for the request but she needed a buffer she realized. Dinner with just Jane and her mother right now would be too much.

##

Frankie leaned back in Frost's desk. "What's he saying?" The look of unadulterated frustration on his sister's face made him almost wary to ask but this was round three in the box with the union rep and he was getting nowhere on his own with the small task force they had put together to find the unknown driver who had fled the scene.

Jane dropped a heavy stack of case files containing the glossy images eight and a half by eleven in size of their three known victim's crime scenes. "Where are we on the finger prints from the house?"

Frankie looked over to Korsak who had returned with her and was smoothing out his tie before sitting behind his desk. "That bad?"

"First he asks for a lawyer, then he doesn't say anything, and now the lawyer is asking for a deal."

Frankie sat up in his seat. "A deal?"

Jane plopped down behind her desk. "Yeah, can you believe, smug pr—"

"We cut Alberto Albert lose." Korsak nodded at Frankie. "He knew nothing."

"What about the keychain Maura found?" Nina asked as she entered the room.

Jane leaned back fully in her chair. "She was able to get some kind of residue off the links of the fisher's lore, Kent is running tests now."

"Well." Holiday began. "I may have some good news on our girl." She tossed an arm over her shoulder toward BRIC. "You guys are gonna wanna see this."

All three detectives glanced at one another before jumping out of their seats and following after her. Once behind her station Nina fixated the enlarged image on screen to a grainy image. "This is a surveillance camera outside a nearby gas station."

"That me?" Frankie asked pointing to the far-right corner of the screen where he and a uniformed officer stood speaking to one another. Nina nodded in confirmation.

"Frankie you were there for an hour." Nina reminded.

He nodded remembering. "It's the last place I checked, closest one to the rep's house." He looked over at Jane. "Clerk said he hadn't noticed anything."

"I'm going to reverse frame." Nina toggled the image back forty five minutes prior to Frankie's arrival. "There." She paused the image.

Korsak exhaled heavily as he looked at the grainy image of the woman who was driving the union rep. "Great work Holiday."

Jane watched on screen as the driver stood at the payphone clutching the device for a few minutes before hanging up, ten minutes later a blue sedan with Connecticut plates pulled up and she got in. "You got the plates?" Jane asked.

"Already ran the vehicle, it's registered to Milo Khury ex-longshoreman."

"Ex?" Frankie asked.

"Apparently he relocated after a dispute was filed against him. Our rep was supposed to represent him but last minute pulled out of the proceedings for whatever reason."

"I bet no one knows why." Jane nodded. "There goes our connection."

"The number she called?" Korsak asked.

"Same, but it's a local cell phone number."

Jane was already near the door. "He got a local address?"

"Sending to your devices…" Nina typed a few things into her computer and then hit enter. "Now."

"She's the best." Frankie gloated as he followed after Jane who was making a B-line for her desk to get her firearm.

"I know." Nina sang as they rushed out of the room.

##

"So Khury was the ringleader?" Maura was busy packing her briefcase to leave for the evening when Jane called with an update on the case.

"Hard to say but we think it's the break we needed."

"Are you getting on a plane tomorrow?" She asked knowingly. There wasn't a trace of accusation in her voice. She knew Jane wanted to see this through.

Jane nodded to herself. New York. Her mind hadn't even been able to process how she was feeling about the trip, one thing was certain though, she was excited to get a shot at relaxing a little. "Tomorrow at three… gives me enough time to get in and help out with some more of this paper work." She jingled her car keys in her hand in thought before remembering something. "Were you able to get anything from the fisher's lore?"

Maura closed her laptop and switched the cell phone to her other hand so she could pick it up securely. "Yes, microscopic samples of soil, biological residue…."

"Biological residue? Semen?"

"No actually, bile."

"Bile?"

"Yes, I am not surprised since we found it where Albert Braven expelled it."

"When do we get to the part where you tell me that interesting thing that can help my case?"

Maura smirked to herself. "The soil sample matches the mineral composition of the soil found under Hanover's nails."

"You're shitting me."

"I wouldn't think of it." She could hear Jane chuckle. "One of your expressions?"

"I'll explain it later, what about the other victims? Can we say conclusively that it's the same dirt?"

"We could never say that, but within the parameters of this case it is unlikely the levels of iron and magnesium are found in many other places in Boston."

"So the harbor?"

"Correct, perhaps an older building, accelerated notes of carbonic decay and fungal species note somewhere humid."

"Indoors." Jane nodded to herself. Korsak and Frankie heading toward the unmarked caught her attention. "Listen I know I said I'd be able to take you to the airport…."

"I've already scheduled a ride."

Jane frowned. "Okay cool."

"Have you eaten?"

"No, we're probably going to call out and see what's in the area before getting back to Headquarters."

"I'm having dinner with your mother and Hope tonight, you all are welcome."

Jane made a face. "That sounds like the last thing I would want to do."

"Come."

It was all she needed to say.

Korsak and Frankie had approached the car by then and were waiting for her to end the call so they could recap and figure out their next steps. "Yeah I'll see what the guys want to do…. Alright, yeah… Yes." She rolled her eyes while trying not to laugh. "Bye."

"Who was that?" Frankie asked.

"Ma's making dinner for Maura and Hope, you guys wanna stop by before we head back in?" It would be a late one again and they were owed a two hour break seeing as how they worked through lunch.

Korsak touched his stomach. "I don't think I've had a home cooked meal in a week."

Frankie grinned but tried to appear less excited than his face was obviously giving away. "I guess just a stop, and we have to wait for Dr. Fraiser to wait for our driver's evaluation." She had been found with Khury at his residence. Uniforms were driving them separately for processing.

"Could take an hour." Vince nodded.

Jane crossed her arms to her chest. "You two are shameless, what about Khury?"

"Oh he's not going anywhere."

"This time at night processing him could take an hour too." Frankie nodded before nudging his sister in the arm. "C'mon you can't tell me you're not hungry. Maura say what she was making?"

It hadn't escaped her that she hadn't mentioned it was Maura on the phone. "Alright, call Nina, let her know to meet us there."

When they all arrived Nina was already sitting at the table apparently on her second helping. At the center of the table a large bowl of cheesy Bolognese sat beside a salad and a small bowl of grated parmesan. Angela hurried them all in and helped with their coats then with their plates urging Hope and Maura to stay seated and enjoy the meal when the two offered to help.

After removing her boots Jane came over to the table trying to bring as much attention away from her knee as possible. Maura sat at the head while Hope sat to her right with her back toward the door.

"Jane." Maura motioned the seat to her left for her. "I've saved you a seat."

Jane quirked a brow. "You saved me a seat?" She came over to the table. "In your own home?"

Maura patted the seat. "Yes. Beside your mother."

"Gee thanks." Jane sat down with a small grin.

"Feel honored." Hope jested. She hadn't seen Jane in months and it was nice to see the taller woman. "I had to bargain for this one."

"That isn't true." Maura frowned. Not entirely anyway.

"Maybe so." Hope smiled before looking back over to Jane. "How is this police work of yours?"

Angela had placed a large bowl of food in front of Jane's place setting. "Thanks Ma." She turned back to Hope while picking up her fork. "It's good. How's Paddy?"

"Jane." Maura sighed.

Hope smiled at the sincere challenge in the other woman's dark eyes. "I wouldn't know of course."

Beside them Frankie slipped into his seat beside Nina. "How'd you get here so fast?"

"You made me burnt toast last night, a girl's gotta eat Frankie."

"Frankie please tell me that's not true." Angela looked distressed.

"It's not my fault the toaster isn't working."

"—I was just telling Maura about a case at the clinic, I think you'd find it very interesting Jane." Hope nodded when the commotion on the other end of the table died down and everyone began to eat.

Jane was already forking up the spaghetti on her plate. "Oh yeah?" She asked. She liked Hope, she did, but there was a protective part of her that vowed to keep an eye on her for Maura's sake. The other woman could be so intrusive sometimes and Maura though happy with the way the relationship was shared once that she still felt hurt by what had transpired between them years back.

Angela sitting down beside her broke Jane's attention from the conversation of appendectomies gone wrong. "Hey Ma." Jane greeted fondly.

"I haven't seen you in a week you know." She affectionally touched her face in that way Italian mothers did, part caress, part squeeze.

"Only a week?" She thought aloud. "Hm let's see and I haven't passed out yet? I think it's official, you can let go now."

Angela rolled her eyes. "If you only knew the things I did for you."

Jane chuckled as she chewed. "The stretch marks?"

"And?"

Jane gave her a small smile. "Thanks for watching those high schoolers today for me. Cavanaugh filled me in this morning. I owe you."

"You know the last time we had those kids follow us around Jane left them at booking for hours." Frankie laughed.

Korsak shook his head. "Remind me again the important lesson you were trying to teach them?"

Jane shrugged. "Hey I'm sure once they saw how long the process took they won't want to see it again." She nodded proudly before looking over at Maura. "What is it? Aversion therapy?"

"Hardly." The ME smiled.

"More like torture." Frankie grinned before reaching for the bowl of parm in the middle of the table. "But hey, none of them came back."

"We all have our methods."

##

Maura smiled when she finally found Jane on the second floor in the hall leaning over George Herman's tank filling him in on her current case.

"…So we think that's probably what happened…." She looked up when she heard the soft padded steps of someone round the small corner. "Hey. Listen I love my mother, but she did drop Tommy once, we sure she's y'know… Not gonna leave this thing open while she's busy sexting Ron?" She greeted when she realized who it was.

Maura laughed. "I've left strict instructions for his care, he'll be fine." Jane looked back into the tank "How is your knee?" Her limp was subtle, but enough for the other doctor in the room to ask if she had seen someone for it.

Jane focused her attention forward as she gingerly put the top back on the tank and began to adjust the heat setting to the lightbulb inside. "Hurts a little but I'm okay." She commented simply.

Maura pressed her lips together, normally she'd state a fact about strenuous activity after major bruising but everything about Jane's body language told the blonde it wouldn't be helpful. "I'm worried it won't heal properly." She nodded at herself mentally when Jane looked up from what she was doing.

The detective looked to be processing the information. "I'm at the desk for the rest of the night." She looked back to the tank lid. "I'll put some of that stuff they gave me on it." Maura blinked. That was it? Was stating she were concerned really all she had to do? Jane finished her work and stood upright. "They ready to go down there?"

The ME took a step over to her as Jane wiped her palms in her slacks. "Yes, it appears the next time I see you will be in New York, have you saved all of the travel itinerary?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah."

"Good."

"You'll call me when you land and are at the hotel right?" The blonde nodded. "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get in?"

Maura smiled at the unexpected question. "Take an incredibly long bubble bath." She moaned.

"Call me for that too." Jane nodded seriously and the two chuckled softly while trying to pretend they weren't flirting.

"Jane!" Frankie hollered from downstairs. "Let's go!"

Jane motioned toward the stairs. "That's me." Maura nodded and was about to step aside when Jane took a hesitating step toward her into her personal space. Maura tilted her head wondering just what Jane was thinking because her intensions were as obvious as day.

"Would you like to kiss me?" She whispered.

Jane nodded. "Not just once." The detective admitted earnestly. They both took another step closer and Maura was first to reach her hands out and touch Jane's arms. Jane looked down at her hands before looking back up at her face. "That's okay?" Her tone was hushed as well.

"You don't have to ask, Jane."

Jane slipped her arms around Maura's waist and they both inhaled deeply at the same time. "No?"

"No."

Jane leaned in then and placed a small kiss on her lips before pulling away just enough to look at her best friend. God she was really liking this kissing Maura thing. It made her feel… Everything, the clothes on her skin, the softness of her lips, the warmth of their bodies which were now pressed close to the others. Physically it wasn't something she could handle for a long period of time and yet all she wanted was more.

Blushing at Jane's obvious staring Maura touched her friend's face right above her cheekbone. It was decidedly her favorite spot and on a structural level the most striking skeletal feature on the other woman's face. "What?" She breathed while admiring the firmness of bone coupled with the smoothness of skin under the pad of her thumb.

Jane chuckled at herself, her ears burning with embarrassment for being caught in a thought. "Just realized that tomorrow is tomorrow."

"Are you ready?"

"Mhm." She nodded once. "Sorry about this last week." She had been cranky for the majority of it and somewhat distant with the case maintaining all her time. it made her feel sorry; sorry because maybe they'd have more moments like the one on the couch, sorry because she wasn't sure Maura's expectations were being met, partially because she wasn't sure of what her expectations were. Whatever this was they had she knew she hadn't done her best these past days.

Maura's face grew unreadable for a long moment. "I'm sorry too." She decided.

The detective's brows furrowed. "What? What are you sorry for?"

Maura shrugged before moving her thumb to Jane's jaw to allow the other woman the ability to speak without restriction. "You apologized."

"That doesn't mean you have to."

"Well I'm not quite sure what your apology is for so perhaps there was something I had done as well that I'm not aware of."

Jane narrowed her eyes at the shorter woman. "I don't know if that's how it goes, Maura."

"We haven't really put much weight in convention, Jane."

Jane finally laughed a little. "No, I guess not."

"Maybe you need more time to think about what you've done so you can explain it to me."

"Maybe." Downstairs they could hear Korsak thanking Angela for dinner once again, their voices were louder if somehow closer to the bottom of the stairs. "I better go." There was another kiss, firmer and longer in life than the first, and then a small hug goodbye.

"Bye." Maura mouthed when Jane waved as she began to descend the stairs. Her conversation with Angela today suddenly coming to mind.

It made her feel uncomfortable not telling Angela the truth about her feelings for her daughter, it made her feel even more uncomfortable to think of Jane and Cameron Davies on some sort of romantic date endorsed fully by the Rizzoli matriarch.

Had they kissed? Had they ever shared a couch? Did it matter now?

Deciding that returning right away to the company downstairs wasn't the best idea Maura walked over to George Herman's tank and watched her little friend meander about.

"Do you know?" Jane seemed to enjoy talking to him about a lot of different things. Perhaps Davies had come up.

If he had known anything George didn't say, and that's exactly when Maura decided to ease up on the wine for the evening.

Perhaps she'd ask Jane about it tomorrow night.

 **AN: I'm not gone! I just had an incredibly busy end of year irl and needed to prioritize some things. Hope you all had a lovely holiday season. Welcome back, and as always review and let me know what you think!**

 **KathleenDee**


	23. Chapter 23

"Fifteen points in the last quarter."

"You're kidding?"

"No, no way he was playing defense all night then suddenly out of nowhere blam! Fifteen points!" Frankie picked up a pickle on his plate and bit into it. "Can't believe you missed it." He chewed.

Jane huffed as she reached for her milkshake. "Can't believe you caught it, we didn't get out until three in the morning."

He shrugged. "Nina programed it so the tv box saves all the Celtic games, I couldn't really sleep." His fiancée had tried to stay awake and watch the game with him having played basketball in High School herself but Nina had passed out with her feet on Frankie's lap two minutes in.

Sensing something behind his tone Jane reached into their shared bowl of onion rings in the middle of the table. "Everything okay there?"

"Yeah yeah." Frankie waved off. "We're just tired y'know, always talking about the case—"

"So the wedding planning has been put on hold."

Frankie narrowed his eyes. "Hey keep it down."

Jane chuckled as both siblings turned to regard their mother talking to a guest of The Dirty Robber a few tables away. "The sooner she's allowed to get involved the sooner it won't hurt." Jane teased.

Frankie adjusted his suit tie. "Or the sooner we elope."

"You better not."

"You kidding?" He reached for a french fry. "I'd never hear the end of it. It's a lot of pressure you know? Being the first to get married."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Middle child finally feeling the heat?"

He chuckled. "Speaking of basketball, how's your knee?"

Jane flexed and unflexed her leg muscle under the table at the mention of it. "I'll be fine." She had slept in today, showered up at BPD headquarters and put in a few solid hours of work before saying goodbye to Korsak and heading over to The Robber with Frankie for lunch before he was going to drive her to the airport. If all went according to plan she'd be in New York in a couple of hours catching up with Tasha at the hotel bar while Maura got ready for the opening ceremony of her conference. Not even an achy knee was going to get in her way.

"Just don't walk everywhere." Frankie warned. "You're gonna want to cause you can but isn't a part of that FBI thing a physical?"

"Not this part." Jane's cell phone began to buzz on the table beside them. "This is only the psych evaluations, Since I'm only lecturing, I won't really need to do anything like that."

"You gonna see Agent Gabriel Dean?"

Jane looked up from her phone. "Ma make you ask that question?"

Frankie shrugged. "No."

"No I won't be seeing Gabriel." She said his name sarcastically before looking back to her cell phone. It was a text from Maura. "Doubt he's even in the country."

 _ **Winds NW 18mph-Air quality index 55-feels like 17 degrees Fahrenheit.**_

Jane shook her head and shot her back a reply before returning to her burger.

 _ **So it's cold….?**_

"Can't a brother be curious—"

"No."

"Y'know." Frankie sat back in his seat at their favorite corner booth of the bar. "I can't remember the last time you took a vacation. I approve."

"You approve?" Jane raised a brow.

"Yeah y'know, I'll close up this case—"

Jane chuckled. "Nina's gonna a close it."

Frankie gave her a look and then chuckled too. "Whatever, anyway after dropping you off I'm going to circle back to the union rep's house. Figure we'd look again now that we know what we're looking for."

Jane nodded. "You need a connection to Khury. There has to be files on him."

"Korsak put in to get access to his office again."

Jane slowly chewed a french fry in thought. Her phone buzzed again. "You know maybe we already have what we need in evidence from the first time."

Frankie reached for his iced tea. "We wouldn't have known then who he was."

Jane looked at her phone again and nodded at her brother's train of thought while typing out a reply. "Right, and this rep doesn't seem like the type to leave anything undocumented, remember his medicine cabinet?"

 _ **You will need appropriate winter attire, yes.**_

 _ **Meet up with Tasha yet?**_

Frankie nodded. "Yeah everything was mapped out: what to take, when to take it, an OCD kinda thing."

Jane put her phone down. "There's gotta be documentation on Khury. Find out why he backed out for representing him, find out why he's protecting him now."

Frankie nodded. He was about to say something when a firm hand surprised him by capping him on the shoulder roughly.

"Hey guys!"

Jane smirked at the annoyed looked on Frankie's face as Tommy obnoxiously began to ruffle his hair. "Hey you're late."

"Get off me." Frankie swatted his hands away and Tommy only grinned.

"Sorry, meeting ran a little longer, since I got TJ tonight it's the only one I could catch." He took off his brown leather jacket and tossed it onto the back of the booth before rolling up his flannel sleeves and scooting into the booth beside Frankie. "You guys ordered without me?" He looked a little hurt.

Jane pushed the bowl of onion rings that they had been sharing his way. "Tommy It's been thirty minutes."

Tommy popped a crispy onion ring into his mouth and chewed. "Where's Ma? Think she's in a good enough mood to make me a tuna melt?" He began looking around the bar.

"How's the meetings been going?" Jane redirected. "TJ? Lydia? You ask about a tuxedo and then we hear nothing?"

"I've been watching the news." Tommy waved down their mother. "Hey Ma!" He turned back to Jane and Frankie. "Big hot shot detectives investigating who killed those park girls, figured I didn't want to bother you."

"C'mon Tommy you know you're not a bother…." Frankie gave his brother a look. "Not all the time anyway, what was the tux for?"

Tommy sat up a little straighter in his seat. "Picked up a second job driving limos for this guy I used to know—"

Jane narrowed her eyes. "Tommy the only people you used to know were convicted felons."

"Take it easy huh? Larry's a good guy, he's changed."

Frankie put a hand to his face. "How many times have we heard that one?"

Tommy reached for another onion ring. "Lydia wants to put TJ in another daycare cause of some problems he's been having, it's two hundred extra a week. It's an easy job, I drive around a bunch of suits visiting from who knows where. I get to look cool and driving a limo ain't too hard when you're wrecked."

Jane and Frankie stared at him.

"Jeesh you guys really need to get a sense of humor."

Frankie chuckled. "Jesus."

Jane cracked a small smile. "What's up with TJ's daycare?"

Tommy shrugged. "He's been coming home with dirt all over himself, no one can say why, but apparently they're not washing his clothes or nothing. What kind of place does that to a kid?"

"You want me to stop by? Check the place out?" Frankie offered.

"Nah we already took him out of there."

"What did TJ say about it?" Jane asked.

"Said he was playing mud castles."

Jane nodded having been subjected to the game of no reason and unlimited ways to create the biggest mud mess possible. "You remember when he played that with Ron at Maura's?" Her rose bushes still hadn't quite recovered and no one dare mention it in front of the ME.

The two laughed. "Think we were kicked out for like what? A week?"

Jane chuckled. "No Sunday dinners, nothing. She was so pissed."

"Aye where is the Doc anyway?" Tommy asked.

Jane was still grining at the case she had to make for then and an even smaller and completely innocent TJ for having dinners there again. Now if something, like that were to happen Maura would probably be able to adjust her expectations but back then when he was first starting to get into everything the detective had to remind her friend frequently that he hadn't really developed many reasoning skills and probably didn't mean to stress her out. "New York, she flew out this morning." As if on cue another text came through on her cell phone.

 _ **We're meeting now. Have you packed?**_

"Hi honey!" Angela called as she came over to the table where her three children sat. It was sweet that the boys wanted to see their sister off.

"Oh Ma thank God huh?" Tommy grinned. "Can I have a Tuna melt?"

Angela smiled. "Sure, Frankie you want anything?" Frankie shook his head no and looked to Jane who looked up from her phone.

"More onion rings?"

"You have an hour left honey."

"I know I know." She made a pitiful face. "I'm just really hungry."

Tommy snickered and mimicked her expression. "Yeah Ma, I'm starving."

Angela sighed. "You'd think I never fed you three, Aright I'll be right back."

Tommy turned back to Jane. "So Janie, you excited about New York huh?"

Jane smiled a little at his general state of excited. "Yeah, It worked out kinda well. Tasha has some time off from school and Maura's got her thing there she's doing."

Tommy reached for another onion ring nugget from the empty tray between them. "You gonna look up cousin Vinny?"

She raised a brow. "The same cousin Vinny that stole my bike?" Frankie began to laugh. "No, Tommy, I don't think we'll have time."

Tommy shrugged. "Well you're making all this time to go I just figured you'd y'know, look up some family."

It was just a thing that Tommy would say, and just like all the other things Tommy said there was usually little thought behind it or meaning after it. He moved on to talk about TJ's new favorite book, something on dogs, but Jane couldn't help but think about what he had said anyway.

Wasn't it a family trip already?

Tasha was more family to her than some other Rizzoli she had only met three times in her entire life, and Maura…. Well Maura was more family than a lot of people.

 _ **Figured I'd get away with a few shirts and a nice dress, what do you think?**_

 _ **We can always go shopping here :)**_

 _ **I thought this was supposed to be a vacation…**_

"—Anyway the damn thing has like ten other books, If You Give A Pig Pancake, If You Give A Dog A Donut, I mean who the hell comes up with this stuff?"

Frankie laughed. "You should write a children's book Tommy."

Tommy got excited. "If You Give A Shark A Shotgun."

Jane laughed at that. "No." She pointed at him. "No Tommy."

When Angela returned the whole table were in stitches over something she couldn't understand. With a small smile Angela put the tuna melt, onion rings and french fries down and made her way with their empty trays toward the bar where her station was set up. It was only she and her line cook Edwardo on schedule today. it was supposed to get busy around five and that's when Vince promised to come by and help. She wondered if Kiki would join him too, the last time they all had a blast playing bartender to the busy men and women of BPD.

"Hey Angie, I'm all set here."

Angela looked up at Nate one of their most faithful lunch crowders. He was a man well into his fifties with greying red hair and the prettiest blue eyes. He drove the late-night transfer trucks for prisoners being moved from BPD holding to one of the two prisons upstate and he always ordered a pastrami sandwich on buttered rye, no pickles.

"Alright Nathaniel give me a second here." She smiled and moved over to the POS machine to ring up his bill. At the sound of someone entering the bar Angela automatically put on a hospitable smile and turned to say hello. Words fell flat on her tongue though and a familiar sadness filled her stomach with worry when she noticed her ex husband standing in the doorway scanning the bar.

 _ **I can make it worthwhile.**_

Tommy and Frankie were still going on with the children's book joke like boys did. The humor had long since settled over Jane but she liked seeing them get along so she decided not to mention how stupid giving a postman a perogy would be.

 _ **Keep talking.**_

 _ **I've left something for you in your room for when you arrive, consider it a token of my appreciation for your future patience.**_

Jane chuckled to herself.

 _ **Can I fit it in my pocket? Can I eat it? Is it Yankee's toilet paper?**_

The laughter at their table died so suddenly Jane looked up from her phone at her brothers, and then to her right at the foot of the table where they were staring.

"Pop—" Tommy started.

Frank Rizzoli Sr. dropped his hands to his sides and attempted a smile. "How are you kids?"

##

"Well that's simple The Aufbau Principle states that when electrons are orbiting one or more atom, it fills the lowest available energy levels before filling the higher levels."

Tasha nodded. "Now consider what exclusion systems say about quantum numerals."

Maura nodded once, the torn naan bread in her hand growing cold. "No two electrons in an atom can have identical quantum numbers."

"Which is what I put on the exam!"

Maura shook her head disapprovingly as she dipped her naan into the large cast iron bowl of saag they were sharing "I don't understand how that could be incorrect."

The younger woman rolled her eyes. "I was able to argue the relevance of this all if the Hunds Principal was supposed to be taken into consideration. You can't talk electron configuration without it."

Maura nodded. "Every orbital in a subshell is singly occupied with one electron before any other orbital is doubly occupied, and all electrons in the singly occupied orbitals have the same spin."

Tasha reached for more naan. "Then she said I was being a smart ass."

Maura gasped. "No."

"Yes."

"Should I write a letter?"

Tasha chuckled. "The semester is almost over, I think I can handle it."

Maura nodded and smiled to herself. Tasha was growing up to be quite the powerhouse in quantum studies, and the though the younger woman swore she were still on the path toward her MD Maura wondered if she would find the other work more interesting. Anyway that was a conversation for a different time, right now she could only smile, because she was filled with an unexplainable pride for the woman she was becoming, she would have gotten far without Jane and herself, but Maura liked to think that the three of them had something special that Tasha always knew she could fall back on if times got rough. The unruly teenager had somehow wiggled her way into their lives to the point where no holiday was complete without her, and to where Jane worried about grad school and what that would cost _them_.

Maura supposed that in her greatest loss Tasha was able to remind Jane of the love she were capable of sharing, and for that she'd always welcome the young woman into her home.

Tasha paused mid-chew and began to grin. "You're getting sentimental, again aren't you?"

Maura chuckled softly. "No I-Well I'm just very proud of you." She shrugged. "I'm happy to be here."

Tasha, whom usually shied away from the more sentimental moments in life due to her inability to trust easily wiped her hands in her napkin and nodded. "You guys are the only people to come up and visit." She went back to her naan bread. It was really all Tasha needed to say for Maura to understand her. She was happy they were here too.

##

Frank Sr. shifted. "It's more of a temporary thing… While I get a few things in order. it's uh—it's working."

Jane nodded once. He had checked himself into some sort of live-in rehabilitation arrangement. It was better than the questionably maintained hotel near the docks she knew he had been staying at. Judging by the drooping nature of the skin under his eyes and the unevenness of his dark stubble she wasn't sure if working were the right word for his progress. He looked the most worn out she had ever seen him in her life, nothing at all like the heroic figure she remembered him as growing up.

"What are you doing here, Pop?" She asked before looking at him and then back at her brothers who both seemed anxious to initiate what they all wanted to know.

"I actually came to see your mother—"

"Come to ask her to cancel the last couple decades of her life so that you can get someone else maybe almost pregnant?" Frankie cut before reaching for his iced tea.

Frank Sr. shook his head. "Watch—"

"Frank."

Everyone looked up to see Angela approaching the table wiping her hands in a bartender side towel. "I said come at six."

Jane looked at Tommy who swore with his eyes that he had no clue what this was about. "What's going on here Ma?" Jane began to get out of her booth, but Angela rested a patient hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"I had a few extra hours to kill, thought I'd come by and talk and then see if you wanted to go out to lunch y'know on your break."

"I'm meeting Ron for lunch and we have a rush in an hour." She dismissed easily. "Let the kids eat." Aside from being incredibly annoyed at his very familiar lack of attention to anyone else's requests but his own, Angela was really enjoying glancing over every now and then at the table, they never really go moments like this anymore and their father's unexpected presence was sure to upset them.

"Angie they're my kids too, I can say hi for crying out loud."

"What are you guys talking about at six?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah." Frankie added. "Rizzoli and Sons?"

"And how it was for our own good but we hadn't heard anything about it after the sale." Jane added. She gently brushed her mother's hand away. Everyone turned to look at her as she wiped her hands in a napkin and tossed it onto the table. She wasn't going to be able to deal with him being here much longer, and it was a foreign feeling to feel so strongly about but she was learning to lean into these things more and more.

"You knew the sale went through?" Frank didn't seem as surprised as they all expected.

"Maura told me."

Frank Sr. sneered and looked over to Tommy. That thinly veiled agitation he was becoming know for exposed itself once again. "You know I told you that you had more realistic things to worry about than this stupid fantasy of you and her."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Pop Maura's my friend." He said it as if it wasn't the first time he'd had to.

"Who you apparently can't keep your mouth shut around." He put his hands to his hips. "That was private, Tommy."

Tommy standing suddenly prompted Jane and Frankie up without question as well. The youngest Rizzoli stood squarely in front of his father in challenge. There was a venom in his usually playful eyes and maturity to his posture that seemed suddenly as fatherly a stance as Tommy had ever stood.

"What like, texting Lydia the other night? Like private like that?" He growled between a clenched jaw. Frank looked away. "We're together y'know, Pop. She told me." Frankie's brows shot up and Jane crossed her arms to her chest. "Ma said come at six."

Angela sighed. "Why would you be texting Lydi—" She was stopped by Jane's hand.

"Ma."

Frankie stepped forward and gently pushed the two men away from one another. "Tommy—" He began already knowing what was going to happen if he didn't intervene at least physically.

"I'm not proud of that, son." Frank finally began slowly. "But it wasn't—"

"It wasn't?" Tommy hardened.

"Alright Tommy." Frankie nodded stepping in between them fully now. He rested a brotherly hand on his chest. "Alright."

Tommy seemed to calm down a little and soon completely deflated before plopping back down into the booth. Angela went over to console him but was pulled away from her intention when someone across the bar's small dining room called for her. She shot daggers at her ex-husband before leaving her children.

"Just get out of here, Pop." Jane shook her head. "Come back when Ma asked you to."

"Janie—"

"You don't get to call me that anymore alright?" She said clearly and without emotion. "Just go." She could feel every cell in her body curl and tighten and she had been in such a good mood that just the extreme shift hormonally frustrated her. He was no longer the person he said he was, any semblance of that man returning she was sure she lost in place of the anger she felt. That would always somehow be okay, but to now see Tommy so upset, so disenfranchised and so obviously crushed could turn her to violence.

He was and always would be the more innocent of the three of them, and this was wrong on so many levels, but what even consumed the eldest daughter most was her father's true gift to take the love out of each and every thing he once prompted so high up.

"Pop." Frankie broke his father from saying anything else. "Go." He stood guard almost as Jane sat back down at the bar and reached out for Tommy's clenched fist.

##

Jane wheeled around her carry on bag closer to her person as Frankie closed the trunk door. "Could have gotten it myself."

Frankie shrugged. "Can I be a gentleman to my older sister like once without you commenting on it?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Between you and Maura I haven't opened a door for myself in a damn week." She deadpanned. Frankie chuckled not really understanding and for the briefest of moments Jane were grateful he was distracted over their family to be his normally observant self, but only briefly. "Check on Tommy."

He nodded before slipping his hands into his suit pockets. It was one of the warmer days they'd had in a little while, but the wind whipping into the breezeway of the Logan terminal made it worth the effort. "He didn't tell us." Jane raised a brow. "Tommy."

She nodded now understanding where his mind had been. "You think he would?"

"I mean—"

"C'mon, Frankie."

"No, guess not."

Jane pushed some of her hair out of her face the wind had placed there. "And find out what was supposed to happen at six." She had a feeling she already knew though.

"You sure you don't want to stick around for that interrogation?" He let up a small smile.

Jane shook her head. "I don't think I can be in the same room as Pop these days…" She said honestly.

"For all this stuff I don't know what in the hell he could have been thinking, first Maura, then Lydia—"

"Hardly the same." Even she'd admit it. It was interesting however that their father knew about Tommy's old crush on the ME.

"Yeah but… I don't know."

"You wanna look at it like a cop and not my brother?"

"Aint' I both?"

Jane chuckled a little but then grew serious again. "He's desperate Frankie, and he's an addict, and I'm pretty sure he's sick again or at least on his way."

Frankie's face well. "Ma told you that?"

"She doesn't have to." Jane shook her head. "Why else would they be meeting at all? Look at him. He's lost weight—"

"Could be the detox—"

"Frankie."

They two siblings and partners in law studied one another straightforwardly. Being so close it was as if at times she swore her younger brother could read her mind as accurately as she could understand it herself, there were times when they were the same thought, and it was because those moments happened more and more often now that he joined the homicide unit Jane sometimes took for granted their closeness. She often forgot his age, and that at the end of the day he wasn't her partner on the squad, but that he was her kid brother first.

There would always be things she'd see first and want to protect him from.

"Damnit." Was all he offered as a thickness in his voice registered what she had observed.

Jane looked down at her boot not feeling the same at all until that very moment. "Yeah…"

They hugged tightly soon after and Jane went about the near auto pilot routine of checking in at the airport, going through security, searching for a coffee place that also sold snacks and a wide variety of magazine enough to have the mechanics one she liked to look at with the interesting articles before sitting at her gate and closing her eyes for two beats. With a small breath and a blind sip of the hot beverage Jane opened her eyes and reached into her pocket for her cell phone. She had missed a call from her mother but wasn't even remotely interested in going there, and one surprisingly enough from Tommy. Jane took another sip of her coffee and called him back only to get his voicemail.

"Hey! This is Tommy Rizzoli, leave a message alright?"

Beeeeppp.

"Hey Tommy it's me, listen I land in about an hour and a half from now, call me back." She hung up and then hesitated before pressing another familiar name to dial the number.

Maura answered on the third ring. "When should I expect you then? Has there been a break in the case?"

Jane smiled. "You're not going to believe I even packed until I get there and change clothes huh?"

Her tone suggested she were smiling. "No."

"I'm at the airport, Maura. I am coming to New York today."

Maura nodded and gave Tasha a thumbs up at the shirt the younger woman pulled off the rack at the boutique designer showroom she had gotten access to last minute before turning toward the large glass walls facing Park Avenue. "Tasha and I are shopping." There was a display of spring dresses in the window, beautiful silken pieces with a particular bohemian flair she couldn't help but reach out and touch.

"Ooh."

Maura chuckled. "We'll be heading back to the hotel shortly though to begin getting ready."

"I guess this means I'll see you soon."

"Yes." There was a pause on the line. "Was there a development in the case?" Jane sounded… Off. She couldn't quite put together why over the phone.

"Um no, none. Just some family stuff."

"Did lunch not go well?" Maura let the print dress on the manikin fall from her hands gracefully.

"Well it was but uh, let me let you go, they're saying we might start boarding." She didn't want to talk about this, especially if it meant taking away from Maura enjoying herself.

"Yes." Maura nodded and made a mental note to inquire further later. "Bon Voyage, Jane."

Jane smiled a little at how the normally cheesy saying sounded exotic on an actual French speaker's tongue. "Bye, Maur." They hung up and Jane returned to her coffee. Not even a full cup of Joe, a solid thirty more minutes of people watching, nor the glossy dissection of a yacht engine could preoccupy Jane's mind enough. She was scuttled between her mother and father, Tommy and Lydia, TJ. Then the case, those women… Had they checked Khury's residence enough? Was the car detailed? Did Frankie know where she left her detective note pad?

It wasn't until Jane actually sat down on her lavish hotel bed and tore into the small box of artisanal macarons Maura had left for her (all pistachio of course) that the detective finally got an opportunity to observe her surroundings and be in the moment.

She had been sitting in a junior suite at Le Modern Hotel directly adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center in one of the greatest cities on earth.

For Maura.

The thought alone could power a small town, for Jane was up and mobbing quickly to get herself ready for the night at the conference's opening ceremony, and then dinner. She'd deal with all things Boston tomorrow.

##

Tasha plopped herself down onto the velvety plush bedspread. "He's nice." She said simply. "It's nothing serious, he's just nice."

Maura peaked over her shoulder from straightening out her dress, a red number she picked up while in Paris with her mother. "Just nice?" She had just finished her hair, Tasha had zipped her up and now all that was left was to practice her speech and do her make up. Maura glanced at her cell phone for a third time.

"I'm not going to date until I get this damn degree, what can anyone show me anyway now that would impress me?" Tasha sat up from her spot on the bed and looked around. "This hotel room is way too big for you and Jane, Maura."

Maura turned curiously at Tasha pointing to the large floor to ceiling window that overlooked the famed Rockefeller Center. Below the large Christmas tree had been removed but the iconic skating rink was just visible at an angle making all the tourist look like ants.

"Oh Jane is next door." Maura clarified as she walked over to look into her makeup bag. "And believe it or not this was the modest bedroom suite."

"Wait hold up." Tasha put the eye shadow tin she had been playing with idly down with a chuckle. "Jane isn't staying in this room?"

Maura shook her head unsure of where the questioning was going. "No."

Tasha chuckled again. "Why do you need so much space?"

Maura supposed she never realized how ironic the whole thing was. Yes there was work to be done and Jane had her obligation as well, but the trip was really, she hoped, a time for them to get a little closer. "The hotel only has three room types." She tried.

"You could fit my entire sociology class in here."

"Well that isn't saying a lot, sociology is inferior in popularity with students your age to anthropological studies." Maura picked up her foundation. "You're changing the subject."

"Benny is nice, that's all." Tasha looked over to the dress she had brought with her to change into. Maura had gone with her to pick it out for her graduation, she had no idea how much the thing cost but it was the nicest thing she owned and judging by the elegant off the shoulder number the good doctor had slipped into she hadn't been wrong to assume the best was expected. "He listens when I talk, and he grooms himself." She paused. "I brought three shoes to choose from." She pointed. "But I'm not getting ready until you're actually ready to leave."

Maura shook her head at the comment. "You sound like Jane."

"When's her flight get in again?"

"She should be in already." Maura said distractedly as she cleaned her applicator and turned back to the large vanity.

"You think she'll move to Virginia when they offer her a full time?" She sat back down on the bed and watched Maura with a sort of engaging curiosity. They were so similar it a lot of ways, so different in so many others. If any one had told her even six years ago that she'd be sitting in a penthouse with some wealthy genius white lady getting ready to network her ass off at a medical ethics conference in New York City she would have probably thought the that person was smoking something difficult, but here she was, and it was funny, how as you grew you changed, and it was even funnier then kinships you found when you allowed yourself to.

Maura finished applying her foundation and looked over her shoulder at Tasha. "I don't know—"

"She can't be a detective forever."

It was true. "Most detective's careers on average only last two decades."

"Do you think she'd enjoy working for the feds though?"

Maura chuckled. "Perhaps when you see her you can ask her."

##

Dr, Maura Isles scanned the room for effect. She had spoken in front of hundreds if not thousands of people over the span of her career, this crowd was hardly different. Friends and colleagues she seldom saw in real life but followed their work faithfully, new young faces peppered the crowd here and there, all sitting upright gussied up for a night of mingling as if New York itself were the theme. She wasn't nervous at all, she was proud. Proud of her field and the respect it was now getting on the medical stage, proud of her ability to fit into her dress after a day of literally eating everywhere she and Tasha passed, proud of Tasha and her ability to help mentor the young woman. It was a very nice medley of positivity and Maura was looking forward to holding on to it for a little while.

"….As we continue the week I ask simply that we remind ourselves of the humanity we have all sworn to fight for, and what the construct means when it comes to an ethical practice." She smiled. "But tonight we have an open bar…" The whole room laughed.

Tasha nudged Jane. "I told her to add that part."

Jane grinned, Maura wouldn't even let her look at the speech while she were writing it. "Nice."

"—Thank you and have a lovely evening." Maura stepped away from the microphone on stage as the room erupted in applause.

A tall man with smooth tan skin and a red bowtie that matched Maura's red dress came back onto the stage and the two embraced quickly. He approached the mic as Maura made her way off stage to return to where Jane and Tasha were standing in the crowd.

"Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles everyone." He clapped. "I don't think there is a pathologist quite like her." He nodded as the applause died down a little. "Now—"

"That was really great." Tasha nodded when Maura finally got to where she and Jane were standing.

Maura clasped her hands together; her face a little red from all the attention. "Do you think so? I don't believe I hydrated enough today to project my voice as effectively as I would have liked." She motioned to the back of the room with a wrinkled brow. "Do you think they could hear me properly?"

Jane nodded. "Maura you were great."

The ME's worry melted away quickly in exchange for a smile. "Thank you, Jane." She motioned to her dress having not seen Jane until right before she had to make her speech. Apparently, there was a lot of traffic getting into the city. "You look very beautiful." Her dimples creased and her smile became a little shyer.

Jane raised a brow playfully but could hardly fight her blush. She was wearing a simple black dress that clung to her frame and was shoulder less. It was something the ME had seen on her before, had she forgotten? "C'mon."

Maura smiled a stitch wider seeing the redness in her friend's cheeks. "It suits you well."

"Yeah well I can't wait to get out of it." She joked before motioning to Maura's choice of dress, it hugged her breasts criminaly close in a subtle V neckline. "Is this what you went shopping for today?" She had never seen it before, she would have remembered.

Tasha looked between them curiously. What was happening right now?

Maura chuckled. "It was a bit of a splurge I'll admit, but I took into account the fact that I didn't need to get it hemmed at all. I purchased it in Paris."

Jane nodded some and moved to put her hands in her pockets but then stopped short when she realized that she didn't have any. "You look great." She looked incredible. Jane looked at Tasha who was studying her intently. "You too kid."

Breaking from her thought the younger woman brushed her shoulder off. "I try."

"I would have to agree with that." The man from the on stage with the red bowtie approached the small group all smiles.

Jane's smile faltered a little. Was he hitting on Tasha? "Yeah well she's barely twenty-one so take it easy pal."

He put his hand to his chest in apology. "A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but don't worry Detective." He smiled at Tasha politely before looking to Maura. "Did Dr. Isles—?"

Maura smiled while shaking her head. "Jane, Tasha this is Dr. Greco Hillnore, an old friend from school. Don't bother with his shameless flirting, he's married."

"My friends call me Greg." Greco smiled shyly. "Also actually you haven't read the latest newsletter? Jess and I split about nine months ago."

"Oh." Maura touched his arm. "I'm so sorry to hear that."

He shrugged. "Yeah me too, but hey what can you do? We both y'know…" He trailed off. "Anyway that's not at all what I came over here for." He motioned to Tasha. "Maura told us all about you."

Tasha looked over at the ME. "She did?" The doctor hadn't miss the small tone of suspicion in her voice. She had hoped Tasha would know her better than that. She hadn't told them _everything_.

"Yeah, you're at Columbia now, then back to BCU pre-med right?" She nodded. "There are some people I think you should meet here, I'd be happy to make introductions."

"I'm…"

Jane nodded. "It'd be good to network Tash."

Maura agreed. "I can come with you if you'd like."

Tasha smiled at the two women. "No that's cool." She motioned to Greco. "What was it that you studied again?" No matter how introverted she knew she was there was a level to this whole navigating the world thing that she was getting used to. She should smile, ask just intrusive enough questions that really didn't tell you much about a person but made you seem free spirited, and then smile again. It was a formula that had won her popularity amongst her peers and would make an excellent thesis come end of year.

If she could survive that elevator, she could survive a bunch of tipsy doctors.

Besides for whatever reason she got the feeling Maura and Jane needed to talk about something.

Greco became about three inches taller at her question. "Cardiovascular surgeon, at your service. I did a rotation with Dr. Kinley at BCU, have you taken his classes yet?" The two began to walk off.

"No they're so hard to get into! Why do you think that is?"

"Good question. It's a –"

Jane watched them disappear into the crowd before looking over at her friend. "He's…"

"Talkative, but harmless Jane. Dr. Jessica Knight was my roommate for a semester abroad. They seemed so… well for one another. I wonder what could have happened."

"Maybe she got tired of his bowties"

Maura snorted softly and tapped Jane's arm. "Stop."

"What? It's just so loud."

"The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Thirty Years' War as a scarf around the neck to hold together the opening of their shirts. They're quite stylish these days."

"Annnd his is that red because?"

Maura looked off to where Greco and Tasha disappeared. "He called me earlier today asking what color I was going to wear."

"You sure he's not—"

"Jane." Maura turned to face her. "Just because he has a stylist vision for—"

"A stylistic vision?" Maura gave her a look to which Jane grinned sheepishly. "Alright alright."

"When did you end up getting to the hotel?"

"Closer to seven believe it or not. Ate all the macarons."

"They are from Bouchon Bakeru downstairs and you know the train would have been faster."

A waiter walked by with a tray of champagne flutes. Jane took two off and handed one to Maura. "Yeah but I didn't want to be late y'know? I'd never hear the end of it."

"I am just happy you're here, Jane."

Jane smiled a little at that. "Yeah, me too Maur."

Maura lifted her flute "Santé."

The taller woman clinked her glass gently against hers and took a small sip. "Mm, we're going to need another one of these. What is this?" She pointed to the flute before taking another larger sip.

Maura chuckled. "Do you like it?" It was a little too dry for her taste.

Jane motioned to the room. "I do, so I'm gonna find Tasha and drink these while you mingle. Let's try and get out of here this year."

Maura crossed her arms and tilted her head. "You'd like me to leave?"

"Run along."

"Unbelievable" She laughed. "Is it at all possible that perhaps I wanted to mingle with you?"

"That's what the whole week is for, but we have a reservation at this place across town right?" Maura nodded. "If you're going to start discussing evolutionary theories and chemical whatevers you'd have to start now." She looked at her watch. "We'd never make it if you don't and I'm already contemplating eating that chair over there." She pointed her flute.

Maura laughed. Despite whatever happened before she left Boston Jane was apparently in a good mood. It was so different from how she was this past week, knowing Jane she was trying to refocus her energy on the present and Maura really appreciated it. "What will you do?"

Jane motioned to where Tasha had disappeared with Dr. Hillnore. "Make sure I don't have to hurt someone tonight."

##

Tasha groaned as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin. "I have to go think about what I've done, excuse me."

Jane and Maura both laughed as she rolled herself out of her chair and attempted to navigate the long and narrow dining room at Primi, the Italian restaurant Maura had been excited to take Jane and Tasha to.

Jane had just taken a sip of her wine out of obligation, there was no room left in her stomach for even the finest of liquids but with how wrinkly the label looked when it was brought out and by how excited Maura got when she recognized it on the list, she knew it had to be a few hundred easy. "She got real grown on us huh?" She commented looking back to her left where Maura was seated.

Maura put her wine down. "Though there has been a significant decrease in her heat generating adipose tissue, she hasn't gotten much taller Jane." Maura reached for an olive from a bowl in the middle of the table. Jane raised a brow softly and Maura chuckled at her. "She is quite the young woman now, yes I agree." She relaxed into the worn leather of the booth and let herself openly study her friend. "Would you have imagined being here when we met her?" She asked slowly, the wine making her tone low and thoughtful.

"Mm." Jane shook her head no. "No, no way." She picked up her fork again to dig into the last pearled chunk of seared duck fat on her plate. "I had different plans."

It was the first time she had brought up the miscarriage on her own however indirectly. "Have you heard from Casey at all?" She chanced. Though it caused a strange and unpleasant sensation to run the course of her ribcage Maura knew that Jane had at one point felt deeply for the other man. After everything had happened he had tried to reach out and when Jane didn't respond he had come to her for help and she had because she was a good friend. For a brief moment in time the detective contemplated trying to work things through but something had made her change her mind, she never said what and Maura never asked.

The Boston native shook her head. "No, I think that's for the better." She nodded.

"It lacks integrity to agree with you so hastily, but I can't help but feel so inclined to do so, Jane." Maura put her right hand out to cover Jane's on the table. "I can't explain how happy you coming has made me." She added the last part quietly as if the entire city would hear.

Jane smiled at how Maura's dimples pressed into her cheeks just then and the two shared a moment of soft expressions. "You only told me eighty times."

Maura's smile grew. "Four, I've told you four times."

"Four?" Jane grinned.

"Yes, four, and now five counting this time." She reached for her wine glass again.

"Well good." The detective shrugged. "Cause this has been one great big sacrifice on my end." Jane motioned to the restaurant. "Amazing dinner, fancy wine, bunch of macarons waiting for me back in my room, it's a lot to deal with."

Maura waved her off. "Drink your wine."

Jane laughed and reached for her water glass. "I'm all out."

"I suppose you'll complain about that too?"

Jane hadn't decided but judging by the goofed expression on Maura's face the other woman knew she were only kidding. Still, she didn't want to take away from the opportunity to put herself out there to meet her. Jane took a large sip of water before resting her glass down and fixing the words in her head. "Maybe, still wouldn't matter though."

Maura put her wine down. "Why is that?" She asked curiously.

"Because, I don't know many places I wouldn't go to be around you." She stated matter of factually. It was true when they were only friends too but before Maura could respond herself she noticed Tasha approaching the table again.

"Okay. I'm back, what did I miss?" Tasha asked as she slid back into the booth at Jane's right. "Dessert?"

##

"Nah I don't think so." Jane chuckled quietly.

"No?"

"Maybe." The detective grinned. "If you do it."

Maura's features; already singed with the slightest blush from the amaro she sipped on after dinner while Jane and Tasha drank coffee. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Jane laughed but then lowered her voice as she pushed off from her hotel room door frame she had been leaning on. "You're kidding right?"

Maura smiled. "I am."

They laughed quietly and as the moment rested Maura tilted her head and motioned toward her room with her chin. "Would you like to come in?" Jane shrugged softly, her face an adorable confusion. "I have a tea kettle, or we could perhaps see what the mini bar has to offer." She was tired yes, it had been a very long and emotionally dense day, but she didn't want to say goodnight to Jane just yet.

She motioned to her dress. "I'm pretty sure this thing inspired designs for the first straight jacket."

Maura smiled. "You would be surprised what actually had."

"Tell me later." She fished out her hotel room card and swiped into her room. "I'm gonna change first." Maura agreed and disappeared into her room. Out of pure habit Jane scanned the hall once over before going into her own room to change.

Tasha had had the two in stitches all night about the many characters she had been introduced to and when the conversational turned nerd Jane was happy just sitting back and admiring the two and how much they knew. Aside from their little moment at dinner when Tasha excused herself and some stolen moments at the conference ceremony cocktail party they hadn't been alone really since saying goodbye to one another on the landing in Boston. Jane knew her friend well enough to know she were curious about what happened at lunch, and probably had loads to fill her in on Tasha, but also without really having to say much at all she knew that Maura simply wanted her company too, and it surprised the detective how nice it made her feel. Maura being Maura the other woman had never really shied away from asking for her presence or participation in various things before but this felt different.

So Jane quickly brushed her teeth, put her hair into a ponytail, and picked out the least worn pair of sweatpants she owned along with her grey BPD zip front hoody and was out the door.

When she opened the door Maura was already clad in a silky violet robe that fell to just above her knees and was loosely tied in the front revealing a soft looking white shirt and pair of charcoal grey cloth shorts. Her hair was still down and her face damp as if just having had washed it. It didn't matter to Jane, she thought Maura was just one of those beautiful people, the ones where it didn't matter if she were wearing make up or not and they knew it. She looked really nice tonight, sexy even, and at times the detective found herself attaching every thought she had to Maura's breasts, but in all honesty, she loved this version of the ME most.

"You got short." Jane commented as she stepped through the front door and let the blonde close it behind her.

Maura seemed amused by the comment. "I am short, Jane." When neither were wearing any type of heel there was a good four inch different in their heights.

Sometimes she forgot. "I forget."

"What do you have there?" Maura asked when she noticed what looked like magazines rolled up in Jane's right hand.

"Oh." Jane remembered. "I got you these." She unrolled the two magazines as Maura tried to read the title standing next to her. "You sent me an article about those whales I think and at the airport they had a new science one." She motioned to the National Geographic magazine with a whale underwater on the front cover and then the other magazine with "Science En Vogue" on the front cover in elegantly fashioned letters. "Thought you might need something to read on thw way back."

Maura smiled and took the magazines from her touched by the gesture. "You were not this thoughtful when we were just friends." She teased.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Sure I was, you just didn't want to see it." Jane went over to the mini bar and squatted down to look at it's contents. "They have gin and tonic in a can now?"

Maura rested the reading materials down before going over to where Jane was. "I've already tried the Manhattan—"

Jane looked over her shoulder up at her. "When?" She laughed.

"When Tasha and I were getting ready."

Jane pressed the little code on the side of the locked refrigerator to open it. "Man you guys have been just boozin' it huh?" She reached for the tiny half bottle of IPA figuring that she had quite a bit of wine earlier in the evening and might want to sip on something to mellow everything out. Plus she didn't want to have a hang over their first official day in the city. "You want the wine in here?" Maura had stepped away to do something.

"Yes, the small bottle." If she had been correct in her calculations, she could have exactly three more ounces of alcohol and not put her organs into distress. Though the liver was the primary force behind cleaning alcoholic impurities Maura had to be mindful not to put her sole kidney to the test. "Red please."

"Red…"Jane nodded a she found the small half bottle of wine and pulled it out. She stood and rested the drinks on the counter and came over to where Maura was attempting to rotate the small loveseat near the floor to ceiling window of that gleamed the breathtaking New York City skyline. "Let me help." Together they rotated it and when Maura went to get them glasses for their night caps Jane brought over a foot rest and a small throw blanket Maura had on the bed. "Good?" She asked when Maura came back and handed her the beer.

"Almost." The ME motioned to the small couch and Jane chuckled before sitting down and propping her foot up with a big sigh.

"Damn what a view." Jane looked over to Maura who was sitting down beside her while her eyes scanned the city lights analytically. "What?" She took a sip of her beer.

Maura relaxed a little into the loveseat and motioned to the city of Manhattan with her glass. "How many lights do you think are on right now?"

Jane chuckled again. "A lot?" She looked back to the incredible view. "Is that the first thing you think when you look at something like this?" She wondered before looking to her side at the other woman.

Maura could sense her genuine curiosity, so she sighed with a small smile at her, they were shoulder to shoulder. "Yes, Jane." The detective didn't look away or laugh at her, or even smirk, she just looked at her with this softness, it was hard to describe but made Maura feel understood even if Jane didn't get it. "What do you see?"

"Me?"

"You."

Jane inhaled slowly and looked back at the skyline. "A lot of people who trust too easily." She looked at Maura then. "But it's nice y'know…?"

"To live so closely, day in and day out." She swirled the wine in her glass thoughtfully. "It is quite a view indeed." Jane nodded glad she understood what she meant and then burst out into a small laugh. "What is it?" Maura couldn't help but fighting her grin seeing the other woman so suddenly animated.

"We're weird Maura." Anybody else would have just seen a beautiful view.

The blonde laughed and the two shared a few hard moments of finding the seriousness they just had. Eventually though their breaths caught and they smiled at one another before sinking further into the couch and watching the city before them. There was so much to catch up on but neither had the energy, and this, this was pretty perfect.

Two ounces of wine in and Maura rested her glass aside and leaned against Jane side as her breath grew quieter. She smiled a few moments later when she could feel the weight of Jane's left arm fall over her shoulders. They watched the city in silence for a long time before Jane looked to her left and Maura straightened up a little to look back at her.

"Here we are." Jane said quietly, a small twinkle in her eyes.

Maura smiled and nodded before leaning in a little, Jane met her half way and the two pressed their lips softly together.


	24. Chapter 24

The human hand has twenty-seven bones, not including the sesamoid bone, the number of which varies between people, fourteen of which are the phalanges (proximal, intermediate and distal) of the fingers and thumb. The metacarpal bones connect the fingers and the carpal bones of the wrist. Each human hand has five metacarpals and eight carpal bones…

It all made complete sense for the range of motion expected to conduct daily tasks.

Fingers themselves though contain some of the densest areas of nerve endings in the body and are the richest source of tactile feedback for all humans.

It was a fact that made Maura wonder if Jane could feel her as she brushed the tips of hers as she traced the inch-long jagged scar tissue on her inner palm.

She had fallen asleep an hour ago, so the only logical explanation would be that she hadn't minded or found the sensation somewhat comforting.

That's what Maura told herself anyway.

The medical examiner had not been personally close to her when she got the scars, and once Jane had let her look at them, but Maura had never been this close. Never had Jane's arm hanging loosely over her left shoulder once pulling her closer as they kissed, now simply resting, conveniently exposing her most private nightmare.

She was transfixed with her hands soft roughness, the length of elegance that were her fingers themselves, and the callous dryness right under her pointer finger and thumb undoubtedly formed over the years of use from her firearm. There was even a near invisible hair line scratch across the expanse of her knuckles Maura had never noticed before.

They had helped pick TJ up when he was just starting to stumble about learning to walk, helped her mother move out of their family home, saved her own life on several occasions, helped carry Barry to rest…

When Jane shifted in her sleep Maura looked up at her from her position and smiled faintly before looking back at their hands and letting the facial expression fade.

No medical instrument nor piece of weaponry could tear her apart quite like the instruments she so carefully studied now and Maura knew it.

They frightened her.

And yet…

She found them beautiful, and wanted them as close to her physical person as physically possible.

It felt to the doctor like an unhealthy contradiction, something a naïve woman would exclaim. She was sure she wasn't that, in fact she was sure she wasn't trying to contradict herself either it just felt… impossible to understand. The ME was aware that a vast majority of the world population believed in life's most important questions not needing an answer, the pursuit of one universally was seen as mad, but as a scientist (surely a mad one) she couldn't help but be curious of the answer, or possibly some sort of evidence that two contradictory things could inhabit the same sane mindset.

Was this intimacy?

"Whaddya doin'?" Jane mumbled some moments later.

Maura could feel Jane curl her fingers effectively holding her hand in place where it had been tracing her scar.

"Examining you." She replied quietly before turning to look at her.

Jane let out a small breath before smiling sleepily. "For?"

"I don't know."

Jane seemed amused by the very unusual response. "Thought you knew everything."

"Do you have feeling…. Here?" She let her caught hand remain caught but let her finger continue its tracing. Something in Jane's eyes changed before she shook her head no. "And this?" Maura whispered motioning to her knuckle where the curious hairline scratch lay.

Jane seemed to wake further even though a rustle of raspiness would remain in her tone for the remainder of the night. "Some goons jumped Frankie on his way home one day." She let out a small laugh. It made Maura smile. "I had softball practice—"

"Of course."

"Mhm." Jane created a fist with the hand before opening it and letting Maura take it in both her owns to examine it closely.

"Something sharp." The ME concluded after tracing her finger along it. "This is barely visible." She longed for her lab equipment but then chided herself softly for it.

Maybe Jane wasn't the only one who needed a vacation.

Jane cleared her throat softly. "Glass." Maura looked up at her at that with a winced expression. "We fell into the street and well… Ma about died."

"I could only imagine." She let Jane's hand go before looking back at her. "Impossible even then."

Jane narrowed her eyes at her playfully. "I wasn't going to let some punk named Ronnie Pervis thrash on Frankie all day. He had a crew too." Jane recalled the incident. "Wasn't far where we lived either."

"No?"

"Tommy I guess was on his bike riding around because he got earlier than us and jumped in too." A sudden laugh erupted from her. "Turned into this big thing and all these adults were pulling us all off of each other. Tommy lost a tooth, Pop even—" Her face hitched in an odd fashion before settling back. "Got a gardening hose…Sprayed us all down…." There was a long pause. Maura eventually rested her right hand on Jane's thigh. Jane looked at it there and then back up to her face at the ME's request for her truth. The detective tried to ignore the heat growing at her sinus as she spoke. "I think he's sick again, Maur." She swallowed hard.

"Where is that coming from?" Maura asked carefully feeling the air around them change so suddenly.

Jane was grateful she was quickly able to manage her tone again as she shrugged softly. "He came to The Robber to meet Ma… "

"Well there is a number of reasons why he could have been there, Jane." Jane was shaking her head. "Don't assume." Maura said slowly. "Did he seem..." She didn't know how to ask about his appearance in relation to his health. The last time she had seen Frank Rizzoli Sr. was at the hospital and only judging by the amount of periorbital edema fluid sacked under his eyes and the weight loss in his face alone did have her draw a conclusion that he had been rather unwell.

Jane had already known what she was thinking though. "He looked like crap, Maura."

"Has Angela said anything?"

Jane rubbed at her temple with her right hand. "She called me a few times but uh… I haven't picked up."

"Why not?"

Jane sighed. "'Cause Maura…I kinda left… in a way." Maura nodded slowly. "He… Apparently reached out to Lydia to um. Hook up and Tommy knew."

Maura couldn't help her shocked expression. "Oh Jane, no."

"Yup." Jane let out an exasperated sigh. "My old man."

"How is Tommy taking it?"

"Frankie is hanging with him, I mean between case stuff." She looked out at the city again. "I feel a little guilty for taking off like I did but y'know… I'm actually kinda glad I'm not home right now." She glanced at her. "Is that messed up?" She had no idea where to being with the latest Rizzoli family scandal.

"No, you take so much responsibility for your father's actions. I don't understand it."

"For Frankie and Tommy." Jane frowned. "I'm their older sister, Maur.—"

"They're grown men, Jane."

They stared at each for a moment and Jane tempered the defensiveness she felt at the statement. She couldn't claim that Maura didn't understand, because Maura had been her best friend for years now. Of course she knew…

"It could be something else right?"

Maura nodded. "I'm not saying it isn't Jane but little stock should be taken to prepare for absolutes when so little evidence is provided." The detective nodded but distractedly stared ahead of them as she processed their conversation. Maura used the time to excuse herself to the restroom before returning to find Jane straightening up where she had fallen asleep by grabbing their glasses and bottles and bringing them into the kitchenette. Maura smiled knowingly as the detective rinsed out the cups with her back turned. "Jane."

The taller of the two turned off the small facet and shook her water glass clean before setting aside and turning toward her. She leaned against the sink and shrugged. "How can I relax when all this is going on?"

Maura leaned against the bathroom doorframe opposite her and crossed her arms. "How do you even know anything is going on at all?"

"'Cause he broke my Ma's heart, Maura." She crossed her arms to her chest as well. "Several times, and it doesn't really matter how good she's doing now." Maura bit back her correction. "He still broke her heart, left her holding the bag with the IRS, homeless, and then had the audacity to ask for an annulment. I don't care who you are, you're not going to schedule to see someone like that just because you wanna talk shop." She shook her head, a confidence in her voice resembled that of the Jane Maura was used to seeing in the bullpen. "When he was sick the first time Ma was there for him, she'd do it again, she's just like that."

Maura saw her points. "What did your father say?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Idiot thought he'd show up early to take her to lunch."

"Wouldn't that imply an illusion of things happening in a more positive direction?"

Jane paused. His sheepish optimism about their meeting was definitely suspicious. "Yeah… He mentioned living in some new place, not that hotel I was telling you about. He said it was helping…."

"That sounds costly."

Jane looked off center away from Maura for a moment. "Yeah.." She agreed slower this time. Rizzoli & Sons came to mind then. "He's still drinking though." Jane looked over at Maura. "I could tell…"

"From my research on addiction it doesn't seem like an easy thing to overcome by ones self."

Jane shook her head. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Take his side."

Maura raised a brow and exhaled carefully. "Jane I was not aware there were sides to be taken here, I am simply providing my opinion, that's what you would want correct?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah but it's so… Even after he pulled this stuff with Lydia and clearly has some kind of issue with you."

Maura shook her head. "The truth?" Jane raised her brows in challenge and motioned for her to go on. "I'd imagine he has suspected something between us from the beginning, thus launching his initial suspicions surrounding me. I did not fall into a specific stereotypical position in the life you all had and it concerned him, and when my suspicions grew of his addiction it concerned him more. When he came into the morgue, he asked about you, and I did not lie to him about my feelings surrounding his return."

Jane tried to process the information as quickly as Maura spoke it. "What did he ask you?" A lot of seemingly meaningless conversations or occurrences with her father through the time when he and her mother were together suddenly ran a ribbon of memories through her minds eye. Him asking if Maura might bring someone to a family gathering, asking if it were really necessary that they spend so much time together, or even the more obvious one, using Maura as a wedge to get back into the family, as if somehow knowing that a deceit from her best friend about her father would throw their friendship into turmoil.

"If I were protective of you."

"He give you the speech that I should find someone?" Maura nodded and Jane exhaled heavily. "This is stupid." She mumbled not really trusting herself to limit herself to one curse word. "So he never liked you?" Maura offered her a small shrug and the detective suddenly felt ill. "Maura why didn't you say anything to me?"

"Jane." She paused her. "He was never impolite, and he was important to you, and even when he wasn't I know he will always be your father, and that is important regardless."

Jane was shaking her head. "Maura this… Changes everything."

"I don't see how it could."

"Maura." She looked bewildered. "There is no way I'm even entertaining the idea of a relationship with him if he doesn't get that you, your… like the only person who gets me."

There was a small pause between them where the weight of her words anchored them to the room and it's emptiness. "Jane." Maura began softly. "I just think he assumes we are too close, and that somehow I am hindering you from a life that he preordained."

"And when we have to publish?"

Maura grew confused at the phrase but then chuckled quietly at it, the action clearly annoying the passionate woman across from her though. "I'm unsure of how you would like me to respond to that." She said honestly.

Jane crossed her arms again. "What happened to your opinion?"

"I have none on the matter."

"You have no opinion on telling people about… this?"

"I did not say that."

"Well then what did you say?" She sneered in frustration. "I can't do the ask a million questions to get a single answer thing right now, Maur."

Maura shifted her stance now and scoffed lightly at the comment. "I have no opinion of what your father thinks of me." She let her arms fall. "I only care, about what you think." She finished evenly.

Jane huffed quietly before looking elsewhere in the room. She took a measured breath and looked back at Maura who seemed just peeved enough to really get into it which took a lot, and for that she felt like an idiot. "I'm sorry." She motioned to the hotel room. "I'm just… Frustrated."

Maura nodded. "I know."

There was a very long moment of silence between them as the tension slowly oozed out of the room leaving Jane feeling even more exhausted than before and leaving Maura wondering if the conversation was truly worthy of their time to get into with the other woman given her state of fatigue and the tenderness of before.

Jane closed the distance between them, and Maura touched her shoulder as the detective leaned in to press a kiss on her cheek. "If I don't pass out in the next five minutes, I'm gonna say something stupid."

The mumbled comment onto her face made Maura smile to herself and rub Jane's shoulder once. "Goodnight then."

##

"Ma!" Frankie called as he used the spare set of keys on his key chain strictly appointed to him in secret by Jane for emergencies to enter Maura's front door. With a shake of the head Frankie sighed when he heard his mother's voice somewhere nearby but muffled by a wall. "Mother!" He called out again. It wasn't terribly early, but he had already agreed to meet up with Tommy in a little so he and TJ could go with him to a local bookstore, and then he was to drop them off, and then he was to meet Nina for lunch to pretend to have some semblance of a normal relastionship and then they were to meet Korsak back at BPD HQ to dig further into the information they had uncovered on Khury.

"I'm in here, Frankie!"

"Here." He shook his head. "Where is here?" He mumbled before combing the halls through Maura's first floor in places he had spent very little time and was almost uncomfortable venturing through without the ME present. "Where is here, Ma!?"

"The Wednesday Room!" Her voice became louder as he walked down the hall.

"Maura has a Wednesday room?" He asked himself noticing curiously that Jane's running shoes sat outside the door with a familiar sweat band of hers placed neatly on top of them. "Huh." He shrugged before turning the small corner and raising his thick eyebrows at the scene before him.

There, in the center of the room that resembled more of a dojo than a day of the week his mother stood still clad in her pink and white striped pajamas with plastic curlers still clung in her hair holding what looked like a green mesh net meant for a fish tank in one hand, and a Tupperware container in the other.

"Uh…" Frankie began. He jumped slightly when something green literally ran in between his legs and into one of Jane's sneakers. "Ma what the heck—"

"Honey grab that damn shoe!"

"Alright alright!"

##

Back in New York Jane furrowed a brow and took her cell phone away from her ear. It was the third time she had attempted to call her mother that morning and received her voicemail. Now the matriarch was notorious for having her phone die on her, but Jane had also called her house phone, and then Maura's house phone and still nothing. It was around ten in the morning so surely she had to be awake by now. "Hm." She stuffed her phone into her pocket and took a long sip out of the coffee cup she got from her hotel room kitchenette. The detective was dressed for the cold in long blue denim and grey beanie that hugged her long ponytail behind her, a grey hoody, and a firm leather jacket she really liked but never got a chance to wear. She stuffed a pair of gloves into her jacket pocket just in case and existed her hotel room only to step three feet over to Maura's door.

She'd take the responsibility for making last night kinda weird. After a full night's rest and the morning spent in bed while Maura tied in to a conference call made her realize how reactive she had been when Maura was just doing what Jane admired most about her personality these days, calling it how she saw it. The detective realized that part of the reason she got so upset was because her not realizing Maura and her father's past tension made her feel like a self-absorbed friend. Were there times Maura felt uncomfortable at her old place? Did she ever want to not be around her because of her knowledge of her father's general mistrust in her intensions?

Had she really been that oblivious?

She wanted to blame the job, but she knew she couldn't. Realizing that her old man had a reason to be suspicious of Maura to begin with was way beyond her emotional bandwidth at the time and she knew it. it would have meant she needed to take a look at all the reasons why he would feel that way in the first place.

Sure Maura was different, but that's why Jane liked her in the beginning and obviously now. She was an attractive woman with a goofy side no one would imagine just by looking at her, and without so many words she made Jane's whole world seem brighter when she smiled at her.

So maybe, for whatever reason, her father had a right to be suspicious.

He did not have a right however to make her feel uncomfortable. Jane swore to herself that she'd find a way to handle that when she got back.

In the meantime the Boston native was hoping to find a way to say all of this to Maura over some expensive coffee and pastries at this little French bakery Maura had been gushing about on the cab ride back from dinner last night.

She'd even suggest they go shopping if that's what the ME wanted to do.

Jane took a deep breath and knocked on her hotel room door.

Maura appeared a half moment later all smiles. "Are you ready?"

Jane raised a brow with a small laugh when she exited the room without even looking back for any personal items to bring with her. "Were you standing by the door waiting?" Maura was wearing a sleek black coat with a deep purple scarf with her ear muffs already on and in place.

Maura glanced at her as she pulled the door in. "Don't be ridiculous."

##

Frankie darted his vision from left to right. If he were able to launch himself in front of George Herman's path the panicked pet would crawl right into his palms. It was just a matter of trajectory…

"Just don't smush him, your sister will kill me."

"Ma, I'm trying to concentrate here okay?" Frankie readied his jump when George poked his little head out from behind the living room coffee table. "C'mon little guy." He cooed.

"Frankie don't smush him!" Angela waved the green guppy net as she spoke.

"Did you ever stop to realize that maybe he's running away from us because you keep yelling?"

"Yelling!? I'm not yelling!" Angela paused. "Alright… just don't'—"

"I know. I know." Frankie inched closer to the tiny hiding space palm open and muscles tensed acutely with anticipation.

##

It had flurried at some point in the early morning leaving the city pavement a darkened with dampness while the banks and the lightest of branched maintained the snows integrity creating a charming scape that reflected the sun perfectly. Everyone seemed to be in a better mod because of it and as the homicide detective and the pathologist passed small groupd of natives the conversation almost always surrounded the coming spring and the warm season.

Maura and Jane walked north on sixth avenue away from the hustle and bustle of Rockefeller Center and to a less crowded area of the city. They hadn't said much yet to one another, but the silence was a comfortable one, and even though they had an entire sidewalk to themselves they maintained close as they walked side by side taking in the sights.

"How was the call this morning?" Jane asked as they waited for a light to change at fifty first street to give them direction.

Maura looked over to her right at the taller woman. "Productive, I am glad I could reschedule it for this morning."

"Any new approvals for cool lab toys?"

"Unfortunately No." They continued on quietly before Maura thought of something. "Maybe you could accidentally take your coffee near our aging mass spectrometers?"

Her tone was serious, but Jane could see the jest in her features when she looked over at her. It made her grin. "Yeah sure, and then have it sue the pants off me?" Maura chuckled at the memory. "But not before putting it on social media."

"I will have you know Nice Detective Jane has now reached one thousand likes."

Jane snorted at that. "Gee, a literal five years later."

"Oh come on."

They smiled at each other as the light signaled them to cross the street. "Y'know, we've had some rough days." Maura nodded knowing this to be the damn truth. "That one though, that one sucked." She chuckled. "For no reason."

"It truly was a series of unfortunate events."

"God that condo." Jane shook her head.

"At least you don't have to worry about it anymore."

Jane looked at her friend incredulously. "Maura it got burned down with all my stuff in it."

Maura nodded once trying not to laugh "Yes well—"

"All I had to my name was that damn couch and a cactus." She thought of something. "Thank God George Herman was at yours, he'd have been a turtle slider for sure."

Maura winced at the joke. "Oh, Jane."

##

A bead of sweat ran down his back as he smiled triumphantly at the little face staring back at him. "You my friend, need an Olympic medal for those moves." George Herman still looked completely stressed out but with the little stroke on his shell from the somewhat familiar voice did help to sooth him some. Frankie disregarded the Tupperware Angela was handing him and went in search of his actual tank. "What were you thinking letting him out?" He asked walking away. George's little webbed feet tickling the palm of his hand as he tried to steady himself.

Angela huffed feeling the sense of dread leave her body. "The booklet said I could take him out to clean his tank." She followed her first son. "So I thought I could do that and water the hydrangeas too, he's a turtle how fast can he move?"

Frankie found the tank in the first floor bathroom and rested George down in it carefully. "Ma those are like two different kinds of turtles."

"Alright well then if you know so much how come they didn't ask you to take care of him?" She put her hands on her hips.

Frankie shrugged. "Do I look like I can take care of anything right now?"

"Well you better start thinking about it."

Frankie rolled his eyes but then took in a small breath. "I need a glass of water or something." He could barely understand why, Jane hadn't really been particularly attached to Jo Friday in the way that she was George, but he knew if anything happened to the little green thing her sister would be devastated, and then shortly after out for revenge. "We don't mention this to Jane." He warned his mother as he left the room calmly as if he hadn't spent the last hour chasing around one of the animal kingdoms slowest members.

Angela met Frankie in the kitchen as he gulped down his glass of water and then opened the fridge to pour out some more from the filter into his glass.

"Anyway honey I'm glad you're here."

Frankie grumbled good naturedly at being still out of breath. He turned and regarded his mother. "Ma, what were you doing with Babe?" He motioned to the hall where Maura's supposed "Wednesday room" was. He needed to get the story straight in case Jane asked him an elaborate question regarding the incident, if the little guy ended up in cardiac arrest after all the running he had done.

She sighed. "I took him out and thought I heard my phone ringing, then when it stopped, I came back to get some water and—" She paused. "Babe? I thought his name was George?

Frankie finished a sip of his water before resting his glass down. "George Herman Ruth, Ma… Babe Ruth…."

Angela waved him off not being able to be bothered. "Like I said I'm glad you came by."

Frankie nodded and crossed his arms to his chest. "You said you needed a ride to the bank, but I'm guessing maybe that's not true."

Angela closed the small folder Maura had provided with instructions on how to care for George that was sitting on the island. "Have you spoken to your brother?"

Frankie nodded. "You haven't?" That was a surprise.

"He won't answer my calls."

Frankie uncrossed his arms. "Never seen him that pissed about anything."

"I have." Angela came into the kitchen. "You want some coffee, hon?"

Sensing there was something she needed to tell him Frankie nodded again and went around the island to take a seat. "Yeah alright." If they weren't actually going to the bank he had some time.

Angela moved over to the coffee pot and got him a mug. "You know when you kids were small Thomas had this fixation with sling shots. Do you remember that?"

Frankie thanked her as she brought the mug over to him. "Yeah Pop made me and Tommy one each."

"Oh your sister hated it."

Frankie chuckled. He'd never told his mother that he was the one who helped Jane sneak into the shop class at school and help her make her own. Of course that resulted in him staple gunning his finger on accident. He silently rubbed the small scar under his right thumb. Jane had felt so guilty that he took the fall and the grounding that she promised to teach him to make of his own and better yet to shoot it. "Janie made her own." He nodded before taking a sip of the hot brew.

Angela sighed. "She did, Lord knows why that teacher let her." Frankie only shrugged. "Anyway If you could see the way the two of you would fight over hers when she wasn't home. Finally I took all of them away, do you remember?" Angela refreshed her own coffee. "Tommy was so angry he stomped his little foot and he gave me this look." Angela would never forget it. "Of course an hour later we were all fine and he was helping me in the garden, but I don't know when the last time I saw you brother so upset was…"

Frankie nodded slowly. "Yeah… He really cares about Lydia y'know… Trusted Pop too."

"They can relate."

"A little too much."

"You'll tell him to call me? I'm worried about him."

Frankie took another sip of his coffee. "I think he's embarrassed." Wondering if there was more Frankie waited, but when his mother wore a thoughtful expression and said nothing else he raised a brow in her direction. "We played pool yesterday, I'm taking him and TJ to get more books later." Angela only sipped her coffee and Frankie nodded once. "Some series he likes right now…"

"He's growing up so fat, reading already."

More silence.

"Ma." Frankie started.

"Yes, Sweetheart?"

"You're not going to tell me what Pop wanted?"

Angela nodded once. "Your father asked for my help with something, and I agreed to help him this once. That's all you kids need to know."

"Seriously?" Frankie shook his head. "Needed your help with what?"

"Some money he wanted to invest." She shook her head signaling the end to his interrogation.

"Ma, he left, left you pretty much in the slumps, did Lydia and then tried to do it again, how in the world could you want to help someone like that?" He asked truly unable to understand. His mother was a smart, resilient woman, she had been a great mother, and continued to be one of the people in his corner that grouned him and reminded him of what an example was and how high of a bar to set in life. "He wanted to cancel us."

Angela smiled softly and reached across the small island to cup his jaw where a thicker than usual stubble lay after a day and a half without a shave. "But he gave me you kids, and for that, for you, I would do anything." She wasn't an ignorant woman, she had been wronged by this man, betrayed by this man, and hurt in ways she could tell by just looking into her son's eyes that he'd never understand, but if she had learned anything from it she learned that there was always good to give and she wanted her kids to see that.

Frankie slouched in his chair. "What do you know about investing money?" It was all he could think to ask. When her mind was set on something, like sling shots being the gateway weapon, it was hard if near impossible to change it.

Angela laughed softly and took her hand away. "Maura has been teaching me some of her secrets."

"Ma." Frankie sighed. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

She patted the island. "I do, now help me with this heating lamp…" She motioned to the folder Maura left her.

Frankie took a swing from his coffee cup and got off of his stool. "Yeah okay, should we get a dictionary?" He eyed the folder and its thickness worriedly.

Angela smiled. "Maybe huh?"

The two chuckled as they headed for Maura's wensa where they had returned George Herman's tank. Angela rested an affectionate hand on her sons back as they went. "It'll be okay." She reassured sensing the young man's mind was still awash with their current family drama.

Frankie nodded. "Yeah I know." He thought of something then. "This place he's staying in, he tell you anything about it?"

Angela shook her head no. "and I didn't ask." An edge of annoyance returned to her tone that somehow reassured the middle child. At least they could rule out her getting any ideas about his new leaf.

"Y'know Janie thinks he's sick."

Angela's face twitched at that as she motioned to the room. "We might need to take Baby George out again to do this last part."

Frankie watched her enter the room. "Baby George? Ma that's not his…" He sighed and shook his head not even bothering to correct her before something hit him, and like a punch to the gut a rapidly sickening thickness formed in his throat.

"Baby Ruth George whatever." Angela chuckled before turning and frowning deeply at the sadness Frankie tried to hide in his eyes.

"Francesco." She chided softly.

"Is he?"

##

Le Pin was just as cute and French as it got for the US Jane imagined as she wondered back down the narrow walkway cluttered with snow jackets and patrons far to tall for the tiny country style tables. It was about ten thirty and it was packed but everything from the fancy bottled water to the chocolate croissant she had ordered had been incredibly delicious, and it was kinda cool to see the bread baker working on a randomly placed slab of wood near the rare of the bakery. She watched his thick hands kneed a piece of dough a moment as a mother and her toddler rustled by the tiny space to head to the restroom Jane had just visited. Jane smiled politely as the mother muttered a thank you, the little girl with her wild curly blonde hair merely regarded Jane in that blissfully unware way that children that small had about them. It made Jane smile back at the little girl before finally being able to maneuver back to the corner seat she and Maura were incredibly lucky to snag.

Maura had taken off her coat and draped it on the back of her chair and was nibbling on the small chocolate brick shaped item Jane wasn't about to try and pronounce.

When Jane got back to the table the ME smiled. "Our coffees will be here shortly." She announced.

Jane looked over her shoulder at the male barista who ironically enough only spoke French and was way too young to be so boldly making eyes at the medical examiner but did it anyway.

Europeans

Jane looked back at the blonde. "He say all that?"

Maura rolled her eyes. "Jane he can't be more than twenty four." She broke off a piece of the chocolate bark cake and handed it to her. "Here, have some, it's delicious."

Jane gave in and took up the cake and put it in her mouth as she sat. "Mmm." She nodded happily as the thickness of black forest cake coupled with an interesting note of some kind of fruit and nut melted together in her mouth. "It's good." Maura reached over the table and used an surgical pinky finger to dab away at the small crumb of cake at the corner of the cop's mouth. Jane blushed and wiped at her face. "Quit it." She grumbled cutely.

Maura only smiled and brought her hand away and up in surrender. "Next time I'll leave it."

"I was really hoping to save it for later." Jane reached for a napkin.

"Were you?"

"I was."

Maura chuckled at her serious expression and all the cracks of playfulness within it. "I'm so sorry." They made eyes at one another a moment before the young barista came over and put their coffee order gracefully down in front of them.

Maura smiled up at him. "Je vous remercie, Denis."

He beamed. "Pour la plus belle femme de la chamber."

Maura reached across the table for Jane's hand and gently pushed the coffee toward her. "Pour toi, ma puce."

Jane furrowed a brow but nodded and took the coffee from her with her free hand. I mean that's what she guessed she should have done. Denis glanced between them curiously before grinning.

"Ah, excuse me." He managed with a very thick accent. He turned to Maura sheepishly. "Votre petite amie ne parle pas français?"

Maura fought a grin. "Pas en public."

"Ah!" The young French man chuckled hard and gave them both surprisingly loving smiles. "Très bien très bien. Amusez-vous." He did a small bit of a bow before heading back to the espresso machine.

Maura was smiling wildly and reaching for her coffee but stopped when she looked over at Jane. The detective laughed when she continued chuckling to herself obviously very comfortable leaving the other woman out of the joke.

"Do I even want to know what you told him?" Jane couldn't help her grin at her giggling. Maura Isles, the comedian.

Maura allowed herself to calm down by taking a sip of her lemon water and clearing her throat a little. "He simply asked if you spoke French as well and I told him you didn't, in public at least."

Jane's faced reddened deeply. "Maura." She groaned, a laugh plaguing at her lips at the forwardness of the joke. "No c'mon." She glanced over at the barista who grinned back at her before winking. "I am going to kill you."

Maura amusedly went about sipping her coffee, a faint blush of her own forming at her cheeks. "Will you come with me next time?"

"So I can learn some French to be able to stick up for myself? Yes absolutely." Maura laughed. "I'll even book my ticket in advance this time."

Maura huffed at that. "Surely we will experience our next extinction before that occurs."

Jane broke off a piece of her croissant and took a big chunk out of it and watched the ME carefully. "So what's a _puce_?"

Maura tried to hide her grin behind her cappuccino. "I beg your pardon?"

"That's what you called me right? You gave me that coffee that was supposed to be for you." She recited the interaction perfectly. "Then you said something to me and ended with that, what is it?"

Maura put her cup down and returned to her sweet yet simple breakfast. "It's a term of endearment" She explained simply.

"What is it?"

Maura glanced up at her. "It's French."

"Which I am not, what'd you call me?"

"My flea."

Jane made a face. "Seriously?"

"It's a term of endearment." She tried to defend.

"You said that already."

Maura smiled. "It has no real translation in terms of term used here, however it is mostly used like we use my sweet, or sweetie—It's nice." She tried to convince as Jane maintained her over all look of displeasure.

"Don't fleas like, suck the blood out of things?"

Maura chuckled. "Yes, they form the order Siphonaptera."

"Uhuh." Jane crossed her arms.

"… As external parasites of mammals and birds, they live by consuming the blood of their hosts. However." She put up a finger. "I think that may in fact be quite fitting."

Jane's jaw dropped and her features twitched with amusement. "Oh really?"

Maura nodded happily as she went about eating her cake. "You're incorrigible."

"And if I called you a pain in my ass in the middle of an autopsy—"

"I'd be very hurt."

Jane laughed and shook her head.

##

Nina smiled. "Hey handsome."

TJ gleamed up at her. "Hi handomse."

The three adults laughed. "Hey TJ buddy, you call women beautiful—" Frankie tried.

"Uh don't tell him that." Nina corrected. "I really appreciate him calling me handsome, you know you never call me handsome."

Frankie chuckled and greeted his fiancé with a brief kiss on the lips. "Well you know I always thought you did have a bit of a masculine energy about you."

Nina smirked. "It's why you like me. I always knew that." She purred.

Tommy rolled his eyes. He liked Nina a lot, but you had to be a little weird to find his brother anything but a goober. "You wanna show Aunty Nins what you got?" He leaned down to pat his son on the back.

Nina had long since detached herself from Frankie and was squatting to see what he held in his bag. "Let me see little man."

"Books!"

They four stood in the windy parking lot of the Finland and More Bookstore that had been in the Southie neighborhood for as long as they could remember. Right next door for years before it closed down was where their mother used to buy most their meats for family dinners, and beside that was a worn down laundry mat that somehow was still standing. As the day etched on helping his mother with George took a lot longer than Frankie expected leaving bringing TJ to the bookstore to start significantly later and pushing lunch plans with his fiancé back indefinitely.

Frankie watched Nina ooh and aah over the children's books TJ was excited to show her and smiled. She was incredible for understanding, then again she was just incredible in general.

Turning to his brother he nodded. "You guys wanna get ribs?" Luckily Korsak was being held up as well at the vet and they probably wouldn't meet at the precinct until later that night.

Tommy tucked his bare hands into his navy windbreaker and shrugged. "You know you don't have to babysit me, Francis."

Frankie shrugged. "I'm not, we're already going."

Tommy seemed to be thinking it over. "Ma's not cooking?"

Frankie hesitated. "Um, no she and Ron had something to go to." He lied. "C'mon it'd be fun."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah okay. Ribs sound good."

"You wanna call Lydia, see if she wants to come?"

"She's working, won't be out until later. I was going to pick her up after setting him at home."

There was a pause between them then, and for the briefest moment it seemed as if either of them was going to bring up something that was weighing on their mind. The moment however pregnant, passed, and both Frankie and Tommy simultaneously brought their attention back to Nina and TJ.

"Daddy." TJ came over and tugged at his father's leg when he noticed his attention. The penguin inspired beanie on his head a little too large for him so the action of tugging inadvertently allowed the fabric to slide down his face. The little boy pushed it up without concern and looked at his father with hopeful eyes. "Diss big book is for Aunty Maurwa." He held up the novel sized book neither brother had noticed he snuck into the basket.

Nina came over and could barely container her laughter. "Think she'll like it?"

Frankie grabbed the book from TJ and raised his brows. " The Atlas of… Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants and.." He cleared his throat and decided to forego reading the last bit.

Tommy looked down at his son unsure of whether to be stern or to laugh as hard as he wanted to. "How'd you pick this one, Bud?"

TJ was unsure of what the energy he was reading from the three adults around him meant. He wrung his little hands. "Um, it was the biggest book I sawd." He explained hoping he didn't pick something out his aunt wouldn't enjoy.

Nina grabbed the book. "You know what, I think she's gonna love it."

Frankie chuckled and Tommy grinned. "Yeah." "Oh yeah for sure."

"You do?" TJ looked excited.

"But you can't go sticking things in the cart without us knowing." Tommy nodded.

Nina finally stood at her real height and looked between the two brothers. "Ya'll should've known when five kiddie books came out to nearly sixty dollars."

Tommy waved her off. "Should we wrap it?"

Frankie felt a tension slip away from him he couldn't explain as he laughed. "Well now we almost have to."

##

Jane planked herself onto Maura's bedspread the second she was able to drop the shopping bags in her hand.

"Shoes." Maura piled into the room behind her and with a tad more attention to detail and grace placed the remainder of her shopping bags down beside the pile Jane had made.

The detective groaned in response but made a point to exhaust her leg muscles further by shimmying her feet over the edge of the bed so her sneakers weren't touching the soft fabric.

"Do you think I should wear this new skirt to dinner?" Jane could hear Maura moving about the hotel room, then the sound of her heels coming off, then the sound of more movement, and finally the ruffling of paper and plastic as she dove into the spoils of the day. "Jane? What do you think?"

Jane exhaled softly into the darkness of the hotel comforter. "I dunno Maura…" Why did everything hurt? Places she wasn't even certain could hurt ached with such a pestering dullness that it kept her from truly being able to relax and close her eyes.

Maura continued talking to her, Lord knew about what. The skirt maybe? Sure it not only rode a little high and appreciatively complimented her figure. But it was a skirt, there was only so much nodding Jane could do. It wasn't a pair of pants, it did not have pockets, it was a pleasing stament aqua marine, and yes it was a skirt.

The better part of the day was spent in agreement. They would take it easy, walk around, have lunch here and a bite there. When Jane brought up shopping Maura seemed genuinely happy about taking her to all her favorite boutiques in the west village, the detective was even happy to accompany her even though most stores carried hardly anything of interest to the detective. Almost instantly it got cold and dark fairly quickly, and when the wind whipping around an avenue and slapping Jane in the face hard snapped her out of her agreement she was so glad for Maura suggesting the head back to the hotel and rest before heading downstairs for dinner.

"—It's a magnificent material..." Maura glanced over at Jane for her confirmation before letting a small smile slip on to the side of her face. The detective's head buried into the duvet unresponsive. "Are you sleeping?" Her only response was Jane slowly kicking out of her sneakers. With a rueful chuckle the medical examiner went about her unpacking and clipping tags. She tried on a few items and then packed a few others away neatly. The hotel room had been surrounded in silence for at least fifteen minutes, but something told her Jane was still fighting to stay awake. Maura came over to the side of the bed Jane's body had curled up on and smiled down at her. "It is only your guilt that brought you here."

Jane let out a small cloudy noise of amusement. "I know…" She rolled onto her side a little and blinked up at the ME. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. "'bout last night."

"I have taken no offense." Maura offered softly when she watched as the other woman try not to yawn. Jane fell asleep quickly after stumbling about an explanation for her defensiveness and yawning several times, she found the whole thing adorable but ultimately unnecessary. Aside from a few placed comments Frank had never mistreated the ME, in fact she was sure they held a mutual indifference about one another until she and Jane started spending more time together, and even then it was… insignificant to the medical examiner. Her own personal life had really taken center stage with discovering her lineage and dealing with all sorts of the unpleasantries that followed. Still, she knew Jane wanted everyone to get along, and the thought that maybe she and her father hadn't for so long must had been difficult.

Especially now.

Jane did care what she thought, Maura knew that, but she was almost certain there lay a thin layer of anxiety regarding how and what everyone else close to them thought. She felt it too, especially in regards toward Angela, but if last night were any indication on how the two would handle conflict the ME reasoned that it was a lot better than when they were just friends, and that instilled confidence.

Later that night after a lovely dinner alone downstairs at the hotel's in-house restaurant Mouvedre Maura returned to the suite and quietly went about her nightly routine before pulling the heavy curtains closed that overlooked the city and gingery pulling the duvet back to climb into bed beside Jane. She watched her friend sleep for a moment before deciding finally with a small yawn of her own that she didn't want to wake her.

At some point in the night the ME woke to the sensation of the mattress dipping and the sound of a familiar rumble. She turned to her left and allowed herself to stretch her legs out some and rest her hands above the covers onto her stomach in an act of comforting herself until her eyes adjusted in the dark.

Jane's long figure came into focus as she fought to get out of her jeans in the dark. Eventually she was able to stand upright once her legs were freed leaving her in a pair of black boy shorts and a white tank top. She gently kicked the articles of clothing to the side and turned to get back into bed however froze when she realized Maura was awake. For a weightless moment the two just stared at each other before the doctor dipped her chin wordlessly inviting her back into her bed. Jane grinned sheepishly as she got under the covers fully and scooted a little closer to the ME who automatically turned her body to face her.

"I think I missed dinner." Jane whispered.

Maura's chuckle was silent but all the amusement it held lived in her voice as their eyes met. "I think you did."

 **AN: Love all the kind words you guys have been sending out. I've really enjoyed writing this Fic in general but knowing you all are enjoying it and sharing it with others is almost overwhelming. Thank you! Consider this chapter the wind up before the pitch. ;)**

 **KathleenDee**


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: It's been a very hectic couple of months for me travel wise but I'm back now and happy to continue where we left off. Happy reading!**

"It's a genetic prosthesis that enables us to metabolize differently." Maura whispered. "Though the actual process is uniform for our species."

Jane made the tiniest noise of amusement. Anything louder would have disrupted the rapidly shrinking world around them. "So that explains why I can eat as much as I do?" She whispered back in the dark of the hotel room

It was Maura's time to sound amused, the noise squished her features gently and made her eyes just a bit brighter as she nudged Jane's arm with her own. "Science cannot explain how you eat as much as you do."

Jane tugged playfully at the blanket they were sharing. "Alright, now you're just being insensitive." She hushed.

Maura only smiled at her in the dark. "I am not concerned." She gently pulled the cover back as she spoke. "I don't believe it would change your eating habits. It hasn't in fact."

Jane's features softened. "I've gotten better."

The blonde smiled to herself finding the look endearing. "You have." A quiet moment passed with the two women simply looking at the other with a genuine sort of curiosity. In this light Jane's sharp features softened beautifully, and her eyes lacked their usual fierceness in exchange for something Maura found she wanted to categorize immediately. "Are you thinking of your family?" The lightness of their conversation prior replaced with a a near professional scientific inquiry. It made Jane smile.

"No." She whispered back.

A small pool of embarrassment stilled her. "Oh." She adjusted her pillow under her head and made an effort to adjust her voice back to where it had been. "What are you thinking about then?"

"Us." Jane sighed a little to play off the sudden swelling of nerves in her belly. "Just that it's different but… y'know but the same." They'd shared a bed before, but never like this. So much of their prior interactions had been so personal, so intimate, it wasn't until now that she was actually experiencing a moment like this that she was able to really compare the two.

Maura nodded. "We're familiar." She offered.

"I like it."

The ME could feel herself blush. "We're doing well then?"

Jane grinned and scooted a little closer to her. "I think so, what do you think?"

Maura chuckled quietly at the detective's sudden excitement. She could recognize her best friend in her tone. "Scientifically I don't believe much data could be gathered from these past week." She nodded.

"This case." Jane agreed.

"However, the information or…" She tried to think of the right word. "Changes have been favorable. Do you agree?"

Jane nodded. "I like that you came to see me at the hospital I mean… I know you would have come anyway but you stayed." She bit her lip. "Daily's…"

Maura smiled. "My couch?"

Jane agreed. "I wanted to say that too but didn't yknow… Want you think that that's all I think about…." For a day there it truly was all she could think about.

"So you do think about it then?" She knew it were a devious thing to ask, and she knew the pleasure she got from watching Jane blush in the dark was unfair, but Maura allowed herself few vices in this world, teasing Jane had always been one of her favorites once she figured out how to do it.

Jane shrugged. "C'mon, Maur."

"Tell me."

"Okay…" She fumbled over the right thing to say. "You're… Gorgeous and well..." It had been a while? No! Don't say that… "It feels right when we're." Maura scooted closer to her under the covers not even trying to hide her grin.

"Close?"

Jane narrowed her eyes at her. "I hate you ." Maura laughed. "You know this is actually a form of torture?"

"You're always teasing me, can't I simply—"

"No." Jane deadpanned as she tried not to smile. Maura laughing was just always one of those things she couldn't help but smile at though. "And anyway not about this okay?" she chuckled a little. "I'm already nervous as hell about doing everything right, y'know?"

Maura smiled widely at her. "Okay, not about this." Jane was giving her a skeptical look. "Scouts honor." Maura put her hand to salute her, but Jane snatched it down. "Science Scout—" She began to protest

"—That's not real, Maura. You can't do that." Jane grinned loosening her hold on the ME's wrist under the covers they shared but blushing deeply when Maura moved to lace their fingers together there and looked at her shyly.

The simple action stilled them and brought them back to their initial stance of simply regarding the other. Now, Maura thought with a thin veil of triumph, now she could categorize this look on Jane's face. It was carful, near hesitant, but adoring nonetheless. "I like that you made me dinner." Maura began softer now. "That you care enough to be nervous." If she had thought about it long enough, she could never really place having someone romantically in her life who admitted to being nervous about anything concerning her. Maura allowed herself to entertain the idea that it was Jane taking care to think of her first that made her want to get everything right, and to think of that made her feel…. Honestly very special. "I don't need everything to be right though." She whispered.

"What do you need then?" Jane could hardly control the raspiness that suddenly tickled her throat.

"Just you." Maura replied simply before finally closing the distance between them so their chests were touching. "I don't want you to change because you believe you have to in order for this to work." She whispered as she could feel the pad of Jane's thumb from their joint hands gently run across her knuckle. Maura let herself get a little lost in the moment before being brought out of it's sweetness by the feeling of Jane's lips on her own. It was a tender kiss that hardly seemed to end, and before either woman really knew it they were both completely surrendered to it. The sweetness faded as slow as their lips moved against the others and was replaced with an insistent ache for the other that only grew less satiated with the longer they touched. Maura finally let go of Jane's hand to cup her jaw and was surprised to feel the other woman's arm wrap around her waist before pulling her lower torso closer without hesitation, and when their lips parted for the other allowing them to taste one another in a new way Maura moaned quietly against it causing Jane's entire body to tense momentarily before pressing against her in a way that most certainly would not be confused as friendly.

Time seemed to stand still for Jane as she was left dizzied from the sound of Maura's response pleasure. If she were ever going to be able to control herself (because Jane Rizzoli hated feeling out control) she'd need to find a method and fast, because kissing Maura like this was… Intoxicating. it was passionate and loving, yet undeniably erotic, and proving to be incredibly dangerous. Dangerous because she already knew that they weren't quite ready to take things further, but the only feeling Jane could register was wanting more.

"Mauraaa." Jane growled softly in warning when the ME's bare hand moved from her jaw to rest innocently on her abdomen where her tank top had somehow road up in their closeness leaving Jane's stomach muscles to clench eagerly at her cool palm.

Maura let her hand remain where it was briefly before adjusting Jane's tank top for her properly, her face a new impressive shade of red, but she hardly seemed embarrassed. There was a softness to the darkness of her eyes that made Jane want to kiss her again. "I must keep track of them." She whispered mainly to herself but the small chide caused Jane to chuckle warmly against her. Their eyes met in the dark and they both hesitated before pressing their lips together again in a considerably softer yet deeply personal kiss as they held on to the other and tried to calm down.

When they pulled away Maura let her right arm rub Jane's left affectionately for a moment before sighing to herself. She could barely understand what was happening to her body. Physiologically distorted between arousal and an incredibly deep fear of the impermanence of life, Maura found she couldn't focus at all, on anything, not with Jane lying so close. All she knew is that she didn't want her to go anywhere anymore, not if it meant not being where they were right now. The pathologist wanted so desperately to articulate the weight of being this close to anyone to her best friend but found herself without even the slightest clue of how to begin. So instead they stared at one another sweetly until finally Jane opened her mouth to say something but then closed it becoming suddenly very shy.

"What is it?" The ME asked, the tiniest of muscles on her face twitching upward.

"Do you understand it?" she whispered.

Maura exhaled and offered a shy smile of her own. "Hardly."

Jane smiled back and they held hands under the covers again. "I feel like I'm in a bit of trouble."

Maura's smile widened against her pillow. "Oh?"

Jane nodded. "Mhm."

A few silent moments passed.

"Jane?" The ME whispered.

Jane picked her head up slightly. "Yeah?"

"May I make a confession?"

Jane's expression hardly changed as she tried to predict where the conversation would go. "Do you want your lawyer present?"

"Do I need my lawyer present?"

"Don't think I have it in me to arrest you again so, maybe?"

Maura nodded once before offering Jane a small smile. "Your mother asked—"

Jane's features soured quickly. "Really? Right now? My mother?"

Maura laughed and allowed Jane to win the small struggle of hand ownership. "Listen to me, Jane."

Jane grinned. "No, I don't want to."

Bravely taking it as a challenge along with all the other positive reinforcers of the moment Maura leaned forward a little and surprised the detective with a small kiss. "I have something to tell you." She tailed onto the end.

Jane's features had relaxed again. "Well out with it already." She muttered already suspicious of what other things Maura's kisses could get her to do.

Maura stayed close to her, somewhat hovering over the other woman as she spoke. "Angela wanted me to… Persuade you to go out with Agent Davies."

Jane frowned. "Why are you telling me this now, Maur?"

It was a good question. The ME supposed their new sudden closeness prompted a line of guilt somewhere written in her code, but as she settled back onto her pillow Maura supposed she wanted to express to Jane how uncomfortable it made her, how, especially now, she couldn't think of promoting such a falsehood. "I suppose I wanted you to know how I felt about it." Jane nodded and the medical examiner watched her try to process every micro expression on her face.

"How do you feel about it?"

Maura weighed her words carefully, "In hindsight I wish I had been more candid with her regarding how I truly felt." Her tone remained hushed. "I do not want you to pursue a romantic relationship with him, Jane."

There was a small unarticulated moment of silence between them before Jane nodded once and noted the small squeeze it earned her at their hands. "What does that mean?" She asked seriously.

Maura looked away and thought for a moment before looking back at her best friend. "I had supposed that we would be… Able to have a conversation regarding monogamy in some time. When it was applicable."

Jane nodded slowly. Something was telling her that that particular conversation was already happening. The homicide detective took a moment to herself in the dark hotel room before glancing back over at Maura. "Is that what you would want?"

Maura was slow to nod as well. "Eventually."

"Ok."

"Okay?"

"Well that's what I would want too." Jane explained simply.

"What does that mean then for our current… Relationship parameters?"

Jane ran her free hand through her hair. "Maura, I don't even know what those are." The ME chuckled. "… If Doctor Bowtie asks you out then… Say that you're working on something else, with someone else."

"Well I would have before we had this conversation."

"Hm?"

"I would be fearful of sending the wrong message to you, about my intentions."

"Oh."

The two simultaneously turned onto their backs with their hands still joint and the length of their arms from their wrists to their shoulders touching. They laid there in silence for a moment simply breathing in this new space and wondering about the other.

"I'll handle, Ma." Jane finally spoke. They turned to look at one another. "Okay?" She raised her brow softly and pulled their joint hands a little closer to her side. Jane suddenly felt the need to make sure she specifically addressed Maura's discomfort with her mother's request and set a precedent of how she'd be able to do that with other things too if the ME brought it to her like she had tonight. That was how it worked right? Relationships?

"It isn't a priority." Maura warned knowing very well how Jane liked to pile her responsibilities sky high. "I just wanted you to know that it was an idea I wasn't very fond of."

"Well, definitely now, yeah I agree." Jane nodded quickly and fought a large smile as the beautiful woman across from her relaxed further into her pillow shaking her head and smiling at her with darting hazel eyes. "You know I'm kidding." Jane whispered now.

Maura let go of their hands and touched Jane's chin softly with the tips of her fingers. "I know." She let her fingers expand a moment before letting her palm sheet Jane's jawline. Maura watched with a new curiosity as Jane exhaled softly and closed her eyes as if distracted by the touch on a cellular level. Maura removed her hand and smiled when Jane opened her eyes. "Shall we sleep?"

Try as she might Jane couldn't turn off her brain if she wanted to.

On one end she felt this goofy happiness in her chest dance about, because her feelings for her best friend had not ceased to overwhelm her in the slightest, and it was nice, more than nice, to know Maura was thinking about her too, wanting her too. She wondered how or where they had drawn the strength from to separate in order to have such an important conversation as they did, but Jane realized she were glad for it, because the thought of anyone getting to be in Maura's bed like this now set her into a place of estranged aggression and she'd rather focus her energies elsewhere, like for instance learning how to make more of those noises come from the blonde when they kissed.

So there was that general uncontained excitement and anxiety coupled with their thing progressing in ways she hadn't really been prepared for, and then there was the rest of her life, and her mother and father, and her brothers, and her old job, and her new job, and just like that the prospect of sleep seemed less and less obtainable until about another hour passed and like a sickness sweeping in her body dulled her senses and pulled her into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Maura making the bed around her woke her with a chuckle hours later, and just like that the worries from the night before barely seemed conscionable as she tossed pillows over the edge in protest.

##

Nina adjusted the blanket about her shoulders and waited with her arms crossed as Frankie mirrored her stance for a moment before letting his shoulders fall.

"Why can't we just… Have sex instead?" He asked seriously.

When she was able to recognize the softness in his dark brown eyes that she had fallen for she smiled. "Because I have a lot of things to work out myself and we don't have that time."

Frankie's cheeks pinked but his grin only widened. "There's always eloping."

"Top me off?" She motioned to her mug that he was still holding. "I'll be in the living room."

Frankie watched her walk off and sighed to himself. It sounded so cliché but she really and truly brought out this side of himself he wasn't sure would ever get a chance to see the light of day without her. He felt safe with Nina, which was something growing up the way he did seemed like something he was always supposed to supply but never receive. He also never held anything from her either, he never felt he had to.

As Frankie brought their coffees into their small but cozy living room of their apartment and sat beside her on the leather sofa he wondered why this particular topic was causing him to close up so much around a woman who had always made him feel comfortable with being open.

"Start from the beginning." Nina motioned with her chin to a photo of Frankie, Jane, and Tommy as small children his mother had framed for him as a moving out of the house gift years back.

Frankie chuckled. "Well… Ma was two weeks early, and it was this rainy night…"

Nina grew a crooked grin. "Not that far back."

"Oh." He smiled at her.

"Why does any mention of your father send you into this macho-silent-man-type-hibernation?"

"Macho wha?"

"I know your sad because he's sick again, but that's not the issue is it?"

Frankie leaned forward with his elbow touching his knees and watched the contents of his own coffee cup carefully. "I don't know." He replied before looking at her. "People get sick, it's a part of life." He scratched at her stubble next. "I guess I don't know how to feel, babe." He shrugged. "I'm supposed to feel something right?"

Nina scooted closer to him on the sofa and slid her right hand along his shoulders. "Maybe." She offered. "Maybe not."

"I feel like I have to, for everyone…"

"Now you're sounding like Jane."

Frankie shook his head. "Janie…"

"Have you told her?"

"Tell her she was right?" Frankie took a sip from his mug. "She called it at the airport when I dropped her off, she said it would only make sense... I just wish she'd stop looking at everything like a damn case."

Nina blinked. "What's going on with you and Jane?" Arguably one of the most important relationships to her fiancé she never got the indication that something might be wrong with them. A broader brushstroke would complete the image though. Jane and Frankie operated on a multitude of levels, siblings, friends, co-workers, senior to junior… it made sense that maybe one of those things could be causing Frankie some stress.

Frankie looked away wondering if maybe he had said too much. "She's going through something."

"What?"

"I don't know."

Nina nodded slowly. "Ah."

Frankie looked back at her. "Maura mention anything?"

"About Jane? No, we don't talk about her." She raised a brow at him pointedly and Frankie waved her off.

"C'mon not with that."

"No, not with that, but so what if Jane is going through something and is not telling you?"

Frankie nodded. "She's not like that. I mean we don't talk about everything, but ever since Pop showed up and ever since, I don't know she's been looking into leaving Boston with the Feds it's like she's been working hard especially around me not to say something about how she really feels."

Nina thought a moment before motioning her mug in her left hand at him. "Maybe she doesn't want to disappoint you with what she's thinking."

"I get why she would want to do something else, I'd miss her but I'm her brother too."

"Babe, I am so sure she knows that. Sometimes though, when you're the way Jane is—"

"What way is that?"

Nina chuckled at his defensives and he offered her a small smile in apology. "The same way you are loyal, stubborn…."

"Alright alright."

"Sometimes you get to a place where you maybe feel a little under pressure, like you're feeling now, to commit to something you haven't made your mind up about."

Frankie sat with that and thought of all the times he and his brother looked to Jane for direction when it came to situations with their parents. "Yeah, like Pop."

"Right."

##

"…Jane?"

It was the second time she had called her name.

"Huh?" Jane snapped out of her thoughts when Maura motioning to the painting in front of them.

"What do you see?"

It was a fair question. She had forgotten the name of the museum they were in, but if the cold and impersonal marble columns and wide sweeping halls littered with men in even worse wear than that of a federal agent gave her any indication, she would say that they had to be uptown.

Jane was having a hard time concentrating on things today.

"Well uhm, yeah it's obviously a representation of uh…" Jane squinted. "Birth?"

Maura tilted her head and furrowed her brows at the work. "…Birth."

The detective nodded. "Yes, definitely, a long and unexpected,…. Seahorse birth."

Maura nodded at the painting's light blue and greens. "I suppose…"

"Maura if you're going to examine art you have to do it from an experts' perspective..."

"Ah yes and you are suddenly an expert on seventeenth century works?" She crossed her arms and looked at her.

"Eighteenth and nineteenth too."

Maura chuckled softly as they wordlessly agreed to move on to the next piece of art. For a moment Jane's sneakers and her heels clicking and squeaking across the nearly empty space was the only thing they could hear. Unbeknownst to Jane in the short transit time Maura had been compiling a silent list of possible reasons for her odd behavior today.

"Mind telling me what's on your mind?" She finally asked when the sheer number of possibilities overwhelmed her.

"When we're gonna get to the good stuff, where's all the eleventh century stuff?" Jane motioned around them.

Maura smiled at her attempt. "Jane the eleventh century was from the year 1001 to 1100. If any works were possibly restored from that era they would not be in a museum dedicated to fourteenth century pieces." The detective looked at her as if to ask if she were sure. "I assure you."

"Alright." Jane nodded. "You caught me."

"It was not difficult." In front of this particular piece sat a bench just large enough for the two of them to sit down and admire it. The work consumed the entire wall behind it, tall and grand yet of simple tools and farm folk, it said way more than it probably should have for its time. They two sat and admired it for a moment before turning toward one another. "Are you reconsidering our conversation last night?"

Jane's face changed quickly. "What? No Maura I—" She motioned to herself. "I'm glad we talked." It was the first time any mention of the night before happened. After a quick disagreement about the need to make up a bed when you were in a hotel Maura asked if she had slept well and Jane had confirmed she had. They agreed to give Tasha a call to see if she would want to meet them for dinner later and that was it.

Maura nodded once. "So you're thinking about your family then."

She had worn her hair in a ponytail today, so she had to fight the urge of running her hand through it as she shied. "Yeah Maur, I'm sorry." She motioned to the painting in front of them. "This is cool and everything—"

"You hate it."

Jane laughed. "I do, I really do, I can't even understand what we're looking at and I get distracted."

Maura's smile grew. "Well…" She smoothed out her pants formally and then motioned toward the exit. "What shall we do next? We have some time before we need to head back and meet Tasha for dinner."

Jane looked confused. "You're not going to make me talk about this?"

Maura shrugged effortlessly. "Is that what you want to do?"

She let out a breathy laugh. "No."

"So then?"

Jane thought for a moment. "How close are we to Chelsea Pier?"

##

Tasha took a small breath as she climbed the final set of stairs and leaned against the small half wall near a line of excited grade schoolers finishing up a day of activities. Her knees felt a little loose in their muscles and her heart leapt out of her chest as she closed her eyes a moment in order to focus on her breathing.

So she didn't like elevators.

You wouldn't either if you were left in one bleeding to death while a hitman bent on your absolute and undebatable demise fought to shoot you in the head.

"Hi… Can I help you?" He seemed confused at his own question when he took into account the young woman's actual appearance.

Tasha stood up straighter and nodded politely. "Yes actually, I'm supposed to be meeting my uh…" She blinked. "A few friends here."

The middle-aged man clad in a washed out golfers polo and hat complete with visor nodded and moved over at his desk to look at the schedule. "Do you have a name for the reservation?"

Tasha nodded and leaned her arms on the counter. "Maura Isles, or it may be under Jane Rizzoli."

"…Hmm." He clicked his tongue against his teeth annoyingly as he searched. "Rizzoli, yes, here it is… Four more stories up."

Tasha began to glare at him but then caught herself. "How?"

He chuckled. "Last minute drop ins get set up there when it's more than one person in the party." Tasha picked herself up and nodded firmly. "There's an elevator right over there ma'am. Basket forty A when you get up there, should be on your right."

Tasha nodded and made her way over to the elevators. The small lobby was empty as all the small yelps and laughter's of terror called children had all piled into a larger elevator across from her with their teacher.

"It's no big deal." She nodded to herself before hitting the call button. "This is not a freight elevator one, and two I am not being hunted…" She mumbled carefully. "You're fine." The elevator opened in front of her and the young adult bit her lip at the ominous looking fire department phone system on the right wall. "It's four flights." She took a large enough step in and closed her eyes. "Not so bad."

The Driving Range at Chelsea Pier was set up along four westerly facing stories with small basket like enclosers lined with a thick mesh that separated into small and smaller "baskets" for private parties or coaching areas. As Tasha stepped onto the outdoor style fairway a rush of cold air swept passed her and caused her to clutch her jacket some. Along the western wall in single player stall a few old white men lobbed golf ball after golf ball into the invisible nets over the water. As she approached Basket Forty A she could already hear familiar laughter and just make out the silhouette of the two women standing opposite one another at the range.

"—It's a matter of form Maura that's all." Jane could be heard laughing.

"I have form, physically speaking I have better form than you."

"Bull."

"You're not even able to calculate the basic formula of acceleration."

"Why would I ever have to do that if I have you and your big brain?" Another set of laughter escaped them. The shorter shadow adjusted their stance several times. "Just hit the damn thing Maura!"

A moment of silence passed and then a loud thwacking sound was heard and then Maura's hum of self-approval. "See? Are you watching?"

Jane whistled. "I'm watching I'm watching."

Tasha pushed at the mesh entrance to the secluded pod that was currently supporting a breathtaking view of the Hudson River as the sky crawled into evening dusty pinks and purples. She smiled at the big smiles on the two's faces when they turned to see her.

"Hey!" Jane beamed. "There you are."

"Hey Guys, wow, killer view." She walked over and received small hugs from both women. Tasha shook her head in disbelief and then motioned out to the view of the river and well-lit driving range again. "Not that I am at all complain but this does not seem at all like the Museum of Modern Art." It was where the two were supposedly ending their borough wide museum tour today. Jane hurried to get Tasha the right size club while Maura stepped away from the range, it was then that Tasha realized the ME was wearing Jane's larger wind breaker jacket over her own. "How are you wearing heels and playing golf?" She motioned to the pathologist's shoe choice instead of the more interesting article.

Maura looked down at her feet and laughed a little at herself. "We started out and hit half of the museums I wanted to go to—"

Jane came over with a smaller club for Tasha. "But then I woke up."

Tasha chuckled and weighed the golf club in her hand. "So you two have just been up here hitting golf balls off the side of a building for what, hours?"

Jane and Maura glanced at one another with adorable looks of amusement on their faces.

"Yeah." "It appears so."

They looked back to Tasha expectantly and the college student nodded slowly. "Alright so someone show me how to hit this thing."

Before they knew it, the Pier was closing, and they had to leave.

"We have clearly missed our dinner reservation." Maura frowned when she herself noticed the time. "Andres Manocini's new restaurant in Murray Hill, it was impossible to change the reservation."

Jane shrugged as she gave back her golf ball card to the front desk agent who was ringing her up. "Let's just walk in somewhere." She turned to Tasha. "What do you feel like having?"

"Korean barbecue? I know a spot right there in K-Town that's open late and has an all you can eat special."

Jane's eyes glazed over. "I'm starving, that sounds good." She turned to Maura for the final say. " Ah c'mon Maur, we can go to Andres Macaroni's restaurant tomorrow."

"The waiting list is a month long."

Jane pouted some. "So we'll come back in a month, you and me."

With a grand sigh and a small nod Maura agreed and the trio were off. Though it wasn't at all what she had expected for the day, once they got settled in their tiny booth surrounded by paper thin dividers but not quite escaped from the hustle and noise of the hopping dinner spot the doctor leaned back and smiled.

Today had been a good day.

Tasha and Jane were laughing about something she hadn't caught and probably wouldn't really understand anyway, and the waitress was putting down a dozen or so small plates filled with various fermented or pickled items before turning on the small circular griddle style unit beside her in preparation for beef and duck they had ordered.

Tasha noticed the griddle being prepared and patted her stomach. "I am so ready for this. My first week here I ate here almost every night."

Jane opened the small paper pouch her chopsticks came in. "That good huh?"

Maura was already expertly reaching for a small amount of kimchi. "Everything looks amazing." She popped the cabbage into her mouth and sighed happily at the burst of interesting flavors before motioning with her chopsticks for the others to try. "Fermentation is such a fun thing to think about."

Jane paused and looked at her slightly bewildered. "Baseball is a fun thing to think about."

Maura waved her off. "The complexity in chemical reactions and biproducts and how a desired style or taste of a product depends on science is endlessly fascinating, and completely accidental."

Tasha motioned her chopsticks at Maura. "Not Kimchi though."

The medical examiner smiled. "Yes, that is correct. Ancient Koreans sought out a way to have fresh and nutritious vegetables year-round, it was quite an intentional discovery. The origin itself dates back at least to the early period of the Three Kingdoms."

Jane hummed loudly with approval. "Yeah, Three Kingdoms."

Maura chuckled. "That's approximately thirty-seven years before Christ to seven anno domini."

"How exactly do you feel about _before common era_ being used now?" Tasha asked.

"That's an interesting question." Maura nodded. "I suppose when it comes to forensics, we have yet to make a transition simply because we like consistency in our records. Most of the time we emit any designation of time era and simply use the date." She reached for her water glass. "I suppose it's a matter of being politically correct don't you think?"

"I had an Ancient History professor who spent the whole semester lecturing on how it was total bullshit—"

Jane raised a brow. "Whoa, hey."

Tasha rolled her eyes but smiled. "Sorry." She turned to Maura. "How has lecturing been going?"

Maura was laughing at the look Jane was giving her. She could just hear the detective's voice in her head asking her where in the hell Tasha was learning this stuff. "It's going very well. I am working very closely with an adjunct there, Doctor Erinn Dooley, have you crossed paths while in BCU?"

Tasha was picking at the marinated radish in a bowl beside her. "She sounds familiar."

"We're working on a course of forensic pathology and police work with the criminal justice department."

Jane perked up. "You never mentioned that. That's awesome."

Maura nodded. "Well it's still in it's infancy, we are still working on the curriculum, and with you and the team on this case I thought I might ask your professional option on some of our topics when things got a little lighter."

Jane reached for the beer she had ordered. "I won't have to go speak, will I?"

Maura's smile was teasing. "Would you be against it?"

"Maura every single time I have to speak publicly someone ends up dead."

The ME laughed. "That was one blood cottage."

"The recruiting ceremony?"

Tasha was already laughing having heard this story already as Maura tried to explain. "That woman was eighty-five years old and unfortunately was experiencing a myocardial infarction long before you got up to speak."

"Car bomb after BDP awards ceremony."

Maura frowned, it was funny, she hardly remembered the explosion from that night. It was though, the night when Casey returned into Jane's life for the first time. "That was also very unfortunate." Her smile picked up. "I do not think it is healthy to draw a correlation between the two, especially now that I need you." She added at the end with a little laugh of her own.

"We'll see." Jane shook her head and drank her beer, a small blush brushing the tips of her ears and nose.

"So hold on." Tasha started as she waved a piece of cabbage dripping red junks of chili powder. "How exactly are you gonna handle teaching classes full of FBI trainees then?"

Jane opened her mouth but then closed it. She glanced at Maura to which the ME shook her head and responded for the detective.

"I do not believe she's thought it through."

They all laughed.

"It's only on contractual bases so before you ask no I won't be getting crazy high security clearances or anything." Tasha looked disappointed. "So I have that psychological evaluation this week and then I have to head up in a week or so to get an orientation and then so far it's looking like every three weeks I'll be up there for a week of classes." She glanced at Maura. "I got an email while I was at the airport from my new boss." She found the sentence weird. "Wonder if he's nicer than Korsak."

"You would only be so lucky." Maura nodded thinking fondly of the older man.

"What's going to happen with being a detective?" Tasha asked.

"Nothing, initially they offered me a full-time role there but I um, didn't want that. There are things I care about more than a title in Boston."

"So you'll still be a cop."

Jane nodded proudly. "It's the priority."

"What if you get a case?"

"I have some flexibility on that and apparently there are other instructors who can fill in if something were going on that I was primary on."

Just then the waitress brought over a few platters of thin raw meat and began placing them onto the table's skillet. The three ate and ate and ate until they couldn't eat anymore. On the street a small misty rain covered the city in a cold fog and when they finally exited the restaurant it was nearly midnight.

Tasha turned away from Jane who was busy hailing a cab down for her. "So does anyone know?"

Maura smiled politely at her, somewhat distracted with Jane standing in the middle of the street the way she was. "Does anyone know what?"

"About you and Jane."

Maura's attention snapped to the shorter woman quickly. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, I mean." Tasha hesitated to wonder briefly if she crossed a line. "You clearly care for each other." She motioned to Jane who had successfully gotten a cab's attention. "It would be hypercritical and extremely homophobic of me not to wonder the same thing anyone else would if they met you guys and you were a man and a woman instead of two women."

Jane stepped up to them curiously. "Hey, I got one." She looked between the two, Maura blushing and Tasha suddenly looking very smug. "What I miss?"

"Nothing, thanks for dinner!" Tasha jogged toward the cab and sent them a final wave before hopping in.

Jane waved back and then stuffed her hands into her pocket before turning to face Maura who was seemingly confused, embarrassed, and amused all at once. Jane laughed. "What's up? What'd she say?" She smiled.

Maura looked over at Jane. "She asked if anyone else knew."

It was Jane's turn to be confused. "If anyone else knew about what?"

"You and I."

The detective nodded once and then nodded again when realization hit. "Oh…."

"Yes."

Jane glanced behind her as the cab transporting Tasha turned onto a main avenue out of sight. "Kid is too damn smart…" She looked back at Maura with a little grin. "Or we're too obvious?"

Maura laughed a little. "You aren't bothered by her curiosity?"

Jane thought about how she was feeling and shook her head. "It's Tasha. What did you end up saying?"

"I hardly got a moment to process."

"So you didn't confirm it?"

"I did not deny it either."

Jane chuckled. "Shit."

Maura touched her arm. "Perhaps we need to be less affectionate."

Jane smiled at her hand. "Stop touching me then."

The blonde looked at her hand and yanked it away with a small noise of surprise. "Well please do not stand near me."

"Fine."

"Excellent."

With a small nod in the general direction of their hotel the two wordlessly agreed to start walking back. The walk from Herald Square to Rockefeller Center was not a long one by any means, and the coolness of the mist made it sort of refreshing against the forty-degree night air. There was supposed to be a big snow storm coming but the city hardly seemed to care.

For a few blocks they walked separately with a small amount of space between them. While waiting for a light at thirty eight street though Maura slid her arm in between the space created by Jane's hand in her right pocket and the two looked at each other with small smiles.

"It's not that I don't want people to know…" Jane began quietly a few blocks later.

Maura looked up at her. "About you and I, exploring romantic feelings?"

The Boston native made a face. "Ew gross, don't call it that."

Maura laughed. "Is that not what is happening?"

"Right, but it sounds so… Gushy."

"Gushy?"

"Yeah."

"Textured?"

"No like… Like overly sentimental."

"Ah." The doctor grew thoughtful. "That is though how you seem to respond."

Jane looked horrified and even stopped their pace to look at her. "I do not get overly sentimental, Maura."

"On my couch you said—"

"I know what I said!"

Maura began to grin. "I see this is a point of contention for you, we can move on."

Jane exhaled loudly as they resumed their stroll. "Please."

"So, you were saying that you didn't mind if people knew?"

"Right, I mean, but we're still… Figuring things out and I don't really know how to explain that or… Me."

Maura nodded slowly. "I only care that we are honest with each other, Jane."

"I just wanted you to know that."

Maura leaned into her right side a little. "It isn't a simple conversation to have given everything that is happening in our lives. I am content with crossing that bridge when we both feel comfortable."

"So what do we tell Tasha?"

Maura huffed with amusement. "I don't think it matters."

Jane chuckled. "This is all your fault, touching my arm at dinner."

"Excuse me, you insisted on holding my things for me before we left." It was all very sweet, maybe Tasha had come back from the restroom earlier than they realized.

"Maura I'm confused, because we did all this stuff before, what are we going to stop being friends now? Stop being nice to each other?"

Maura patted her right arm affectionately. "Let me do some research."

##

"Hi!"

Jane winced at the light from the well-lit hotel hallway when she opened the door at five thirty the next morning to a smiley blonde dressed in professional attired and holding a parcel in one hand and her briefcase in the another.

"If this building is not about to collapse than I swear to God I'm gonna—" Maura pushed the parcel in her hands. "Maura what is this?" Her eyes caught the doctor's colorful blouse behind her black suit and winced even further. "And why are you wearing so much yellow on a Monday?"

"It's uplifting."

"It's upsetting."

"Our first panel discussion is a half hour." She seemed way too cheery, it made Jane smile a little. "I wanted to wear something that made the candidate feel welcome. Recent studies have shown that young animals cry less for their mothers in yellow rooms."

Jane nodded slowly. "Well I hope no one cries for their mommy today in the presence of your… Shirt thing."

Maura took it as a means to wish her luck. "Thank you."

Jane shook the parcel again. "What's in this?"

"Well I was considering what you said last night—"

"You mean five hours ago, that last night?"

"— So I compiled an extensive list of media depicting same sex couples—"

Jane looked around quickly and then raised a brow. "You're bringing me porn at five thirty in the morning, Maura?"

"What!?" Maura shook her head. "No, not pornography, Jane. Are you listening?"

Jane shook her head at the hilariousness of the situation. "I don't know." She admitted before rubbing her face. "So what, I'm supposed to watch this?"

"The concierge said that—"

"—You asked the concierge of this hotel for porn?"

Maura threw her hands up. "I'm going to be late. Wait until I get back." She pointed.

Jane was grinning. "To watch?"

"And don't forget to call your mother." Maura had already started down the hall.

The detective's grin fell. "Why does it still feel like a Monday even on vacation?" She muttered to herself as she closed her hotel room door and tossed the parcel aside in favor of collapsing onto the warm bed she had just gotten out of. A few minutes later her cell phone began to buzz. Jane blindly reached a hand out to the nightstand and brought it to her ear.

"What, Maura?"

A male voice chuckled. "Wow, hate to be her right now."

Jane sat up in bed. "Oh, Davies." She glanced at the time again. What was wrong with people? It wasn't even six. "Hi."

"So listen I just touched down at LaGuardia, you wanna grab lunch in a few hours?"

She was going to have to have this conversation sooner or later and Maura was working for most of the day…

"Why not?"

"Great! I know a place near Rock Center, that's where you are right? Best Pastrami on the island."

He sounded genuinely happy to make plans, and for that Jane felt a little guilty, but despite Maura's all-around weirdness and obsession with disturbing her sleep she wanted to show the ME that she meant what she said and was taking her request seriously. That she was taking _them_ seriously, she couldn't have that conversation over the phone though right? She still had to work with Davies on some level as some of his recruits were slated to take her class.

What would one lunch hurt?


	26. Chapter 26

Berkshire was a restaurant in Midtown whose entrance sat right in front of a popular corner bodega and specialized in upscale reeditions of famous beef and pork sandwiches.

There was something so nauseating about the honey rich sweetness of the rows of flowers seated on the street at the corner store entrance drenched in their own beings, and the pungent aroma of roasted animal flesh wafting onto the street from the restaurant's kitchen window above.

Jane wrinkled her nose and adjusted her coat as she maneuvered her way about the business of the convenience store and began to climb the narrow staircase to the luncheonette's main entrance. Once at the top she took a small glance behind her before pushing her way into the surprisingly open and sundrenched floor plan. Suddenly the sickening sweetness in the air was replaced with a more manageable and savory familiarity that the detective admired as she began to take off her coat.

"Hello, Welcome to Berkshire." The hostess was already fretting over her sleeves.

"Hi." Jane nodded and let the petite woman wonder off quickly with her coat before returning with a metal slab with her coat number pressed into it.

She wasn't sure why, but Jane thought of the movie she and Maura went to see after the family trip to the zoo at that very moment.

The hostess began to frown. "Ma'am?"

Jane snapped out of detailing the place and smiled apologetically. "Smells good in here." She took the coat fob. "Thank you."

The hostesses smile returned, and she proudly situated herself back behind her podium. "Yes, Chef Gregory is excellent." Then she noticed what Jane was wearing and frowned again. "Do you have a reservation?"

Jane looked down to her simple get up of a t-shirt and jeans and rolled her eyes mentally. She really should have known Davies would recommend somewhere way higher brow then he let on. "Uh yeah, sorry. I think he's here already. Cameron Davies?" Jane watched her break eye contact and begin to search the small tablet in front of her. "He said he was here so—"

"—one moment please." She hadn't even looked up.

"Jane!"

Jane looked toward the sound of her voice and spotted Davies, clad in an imperial blue suit (she was now taking private delight in being able to tell the difference) and loafers without a tie. He had shaved and was smiling a wide and easy smile as he got up from a corner table and made his way over to the stand within a few strides. "You made it!" He beamed. The hostess did not seem at all pleased at their small embraced but smiled when Davies motioned to her. "This is my guest, we're all set." He nodded and with a light hand on her shoulder blade lead Jane toward the table. "Jeez, what'd you do to her?" He muttered as they walked.

Jane rolled her eyes. "I don't think she likes my jeans." She gently shrugged his hand away.

"Oh." Davies looked down to what she was wearing and chuckled softly. "Sorry, this place has been written up a million times, I thought you'd recognize it when I mentioned it."

"You said Pastrami sandwich." They sat down. "Where I'm from that means wear the worst item of clothing you own because you're just gonna end up getting drippings all over it." She reached for her water.

Cameron leaned forward at the small round table they were sharing and smiled. "Boston has different standards I hear."

"This better not be a forty-dollar sandwich." She went to take a sip but paused. "And it better not be human meat either."

Cameron's eyes shot up with laughter. "What? God, I hope not!"

They settled into an easy conversation: it was confirmed that they had both made it in okay, and though incredibly ridiculous, the New York City transit covered way more than Boston's infrastructure would let it. There was some talk of the psychological evaluation and how the process was going. Jane was reminded at how easy he was to talk to, and how that was nice. They had ordered beers to go with their steak and pastrami sandwiches. When their drinks came Cameron took a large gulp from his beer and smiled.

"Thirsty?" Jane chuckled finding the whole thing to be mostly funny, a little childish.

"A little, I never quite shook that field training we got on hydration, now no matter what it is, if I see it I drink it." He chuckled at the look she was giving him. "It's just to condition us to remain hydrated."

She pointed to herself. "I don't have to do that right?"

Davies shook his head seriously, as if disappointed she wouldn't have the honor. "No, it's only for field ops."

"Oh, Good I can barely get through two cups of coffee without being up and down at HQ." She commented thinking about her morning routines when back in Boston. She picked up her own beer and took a small sip.

"You don't remember when I stayed over?" He asked. "I had four cups of water before I could leave with you and Doctor Isles."

"Did you?" She couldn't recall.

"Mhm."

"Well, that was a long time ago."

Davies grinned softly. "Was it?" He sure thought about it often enough.

Jane cleared her throat a little. "Well, I would say so."

Noticing her posture become more ridged Davies sat up a little more himself. For a second, they both openly studied the other. "I'm glad we could make the time while you were here though." It was a genuine statement, but the unavoidable brush of pleasantries had officially cleared for Jane, and it was finally time to say what she had been trying to figure out to say since they got off the phone.

"I am too." Jane glanced at their table before looking back at him. "It's a …see… what we were doing before." She nodded firmly as she held onto her words. "Before when you were over?" He nodded. "I've started seeing someone else and it's… Well it's important to me that I do it right."

Davies seemed surprised. "Oh."

"Yeah I …. I did want to see you, to tell you." She motioned to him. "And because I do like you… Which by the way is a really big complement being a fed guy."

He laughed, not at all expecting the last bit. "Well thank you? You know I know I've been rather MIA and all over the place, literally most days, but I was really looking forward to see you to ask if you wanted to pick things back up from where we left them..."

Jane thought of her conversation with Maura, and kissing her goodnight last night, and as a flurry of butterflies attacked her stomach she tried her best not to smile. "You're a great guy, it's just…."

Cameron nodded and waved her off in a friendly way, the kind that explained any more explanation on her part would be too much for how infrequently they had been intimate. There had been a potential there though, his eyes said he was disappointed to have lost it. "Don't worry about it." There was a long pause between them as he grabbed he grabbed his beer. "So… Tell me about the lucky guy? He work at BPD?"

Jane was caught off guard. She was sure Davies would take it well enough, he was a nice guy and there was a lot of respect between them, it was getting the words out on her end she was more concerned about, but now that that was taken care of she hadn't at all prepared herself for actually talking about Maura, and they still hadn't gotten their sandwiches yet!

"Uhmm, well we've just known each other for a long time."

"Did I meet him when I was there? Ray?"

"Ray!?" Jane made a face. "C'mon Davies give me a little credit here."

Cameron chuckled and motioned to himself. "You were talking to him a lot when I was down there—"

"He was a lead on a case that I had taken over, and—"

"Yeah, uh huh." He teased.

Jane raised a brow. "Ray couldn't close a book let alone a case, there's no way I'd—"

Davies continued to laugh. "Oh okay, so your guy's top cop?"

Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Quarter Women's League Fencing Champion, New England Medical Officers first and only President in the field of Forensic Pathology, Organ Donor, Guest Professor of Forensic Sciences at one of the best schools in the country… Friend of the Zoo…

Yeah, Jane would say Maura was pretty top cop. "Sort of." She offered humbly.

A waiter had just arrived to place their lunch before them. "He buy you amazing pastrami sandwiches?" There was a final attempt at flirtation in his voice that Jane had to chuckle at.

He really liked her.

"God no." She admitted reaching for her beer to take a quick swig in preparation the deliciousness just placed before her. "S—He's a bit of a pain in the ass when it comes to stuff like that." She smiled though. She wondered then what the ME was doing right at that moment.

"Well I've got him there at least?" he motioned to their sandwiches. "Save room for the bacon chocolate ice cream."

"Keep talking about this bacon chocolate and we'll see."

She left lunch feeling both accomplished and stuffed beyond gastric repair

They had hugged goodbye, and Davies offered to buy her her first beer when she got to Virginia but it was all in the name of friendship.

On the way back toward the hotel Jane debated calling her mother and then decided she'd call her brothers instead. The conversation with Tommy lasted three blocks, he was taking a break from work and only had a few moments to spare. He hadn't heard from their father and was taking his time to see their mother too, He needed space. Lydia was good, TJ was good, he had returned the tux. The next call was to Frankie and lasted the rest of the walk back toward the hotel. They talked about the case almost explicitly until the end of the call when Jane keyed into her hotel room and Frankie announced that he would need to go.

"Hold on a minute." Jane slipped out of her sneakers and ran her free hand through her hair before sitting on the edge of the freshly made bed. That sandwich had enough greasy goodness to sedate a town and the feeling was starting to pull at her attention and making it difficult to stand and talk at the same time. "What's going on with Ma?

"Ma?" Across the communal meeting table situated randomly in the bull pen and over a mountain of evidence boxes and files Nina picked her head up and made eye contact with him.

"Yeah, our mother, did you check on George? Was she there?"

Nina raised a brow as Frankie hesitated. "Ma? Yeah she was there, your damn turtle has gotta be half ninja or something, took me an hour to catch him." He laughed at the memory. "Ma's screaming wasn't helpin'."

Jane furrowed brows. "She had him out of the tank—he's a tortoise, Frankie." She shook her head. "—What did Ma say about what happened?"

Frankie sat back in seat and adjusted his tie. "We didn't get to talk about it." Nina got up and he sighed at the action. "I mean— She didn't tell me what this was about." It was true, she hadn't said much of anything that he could confirm.

Jane leaned forward a little and rested her elbows on her knees. "Why are you being weird all of a sudden?"

"I'm not being weird."

"You're being very weird."

"She didn't say anything either way."

"Alright so what happened?"

Frankie shook his head. "Janie, you should just call her."

"I don't wanna call her."

He huffed. "Well why not?"

"Because…" She flayed a hand out toward the hotel wall before her and the tasteful piece of modern art that hung there. "Because then she's going to want to talk about all kinds of things that I don't really want to talk about."

Frankie paused. "What kinds of things?"

Jane supposed she had shared more than she wanted to and in response slowly pulled her posture back up with a large sigh. "Would you just tell me what she said? You suck at lying you know."

He could just imagine her features then and despite the flicker of curiosity within him Frankie decided to oblige his older sister this once... "Alright…" He started with George Herman and ended on her promising to know what she was doing. "—She said she had to help him because he gave her us." Frankie scratched at his chin and waited. "What do you think?"

"He's sick."

"That's what I thought."

"She didn't confirm it?"

"Not really."

"Would explain the money…"

"Rizzoli & Sons?"

"Yeah I mean, wasn't he saying that he was going to leave it for us, settle somewhere here in New York?" Now that she relived the conversation there was a hopeful finality in his voice that lay very close to desperation, and it was her own spite that naively named it the later.

"That part confuses me." He admitted.

Jane nodded to herself. "Yeah me too…" She suddenly got an idea. "He ever mentions what he'd be doing here?"

Frankie shrugged. "Dunno, maybe Tommy knows?"

"Yeah… Maybe." Just then a small beep told both detectives that one of them was getting another call. With a glance at her phone Jane brought her attention back to her brother's voice talking with Korsak in the background.

"Was that you or me?"

"Me." She glanced at the device in her hand again. "it's Maura."

"Alight well I'll let you go, try to have a little fun huh?"

Jane smiled. "Yeah yeah, try and solve a murder, huh?"

"Call me later."

It wasn't an odd request, however with the frequency at which they spoke in general it was one that was never really made before but simply understood. Jane took notice to it now and nodded slowly. He was definitely being weird about something. "Alright I will." They hung up and Jane was able to just switch the call over right at the last moment. "Rizzoli."

"Hi Jane."

Jane smiled at the cheeriness of the ME's tone. "Hey."

"I only have a moment; we are starting a panel discussion on ethical chemical purchasing soon."

"Everything going okay?"

"No one has turned up diseased yet, so I believe so."

Jane laughed. "Give it time."

"I…" Maura tried not to blush. She was standing outside the main hall of the conference rooms watching her peers mingle before the next session. "Well I admittedly had no real reason to contact you other than to say hello."

Jane laid back on her hotel bed and kept her phone to her ear. "Can we do that?"

Maura's smile grew. "I don't see why not, do you?"

"No no I don't see any reason either. This works for me."

"How is your day going?"

Jane sighed then. "Let's talk about it later?"

"Does that mean you spoke to your mother?"

Jane checked her watch. "No but I'm gonna call her here soon."

'Focus on the factual evidence." She reminded cutely. "There is no sense wondering into the abys."

Jane's smile became crooked. "You wanna do something after you're done there? Want me to meet you?"

"I would like that very much, dinner?"

"Pizza."

Maura frowned. "Sushi?"

Jane's smile fell as she pursed her lips together. "Mmmm, no?"

Maura seemed amused. "Vietnamese?"

"Pizza."

"Indian?"

"Pizza."

"I see."

Jane stretched out some on the bed. "That we're having pizza?"

"That you are going to make this difficult."

"What time should I be there?"

Maura waved as she was motioned forward down the hall to her assigned paneling room. "Five thirty."

"I'll be there at five twenty." There was new commotion in the background. "You're walking?"

"I am."

"Alright—"

"—Just remember that she loves you."

Jane sighed at that and then sat up in bed again. "Yeah… I know." After they hung up Jane stared at her cell phone for a few minutes. She wasn't sure how to handle this. On one end, she was livid, enraged really. How she could think that letting their father back into their lives on any level living or dying was a good idea was crazy to Jane. Then, as if noticing some feature for the first time she had had her entire life in the mirror Jane's callousness surprised her. When did she start feeling so… angry? And why? He had always been there for her as a kid, showed her how to ride a bike, swing a bat, hot wire a car. He was at her softball games when he could be, brought her and her bothers to school on the first day every year even in High school, and when she shared that she wanted to join the force he was the one who talked her mother out of locking her in her room for the next thirty years.

Sure, the reality of life was that a person lived many different ways, and was many different things to a lot of people, but what about that person he was to her back then? Had she truly exhausted every ounce of care for him these last years?

It was then that Jane realized she was afraid to call her mother because she knew she'd be disappointed to learn that she in fact had, and for all her father had done for her growing up disappointing her mother still ranked highest on the list of the worst feelings in the world.

The line rang twice.

"Well if it isn't my only daughter." Her tone was big and warm, and it made Jane smile regardless of how truly nervous the call made her feel.

"Hey Ma."

"Finally able to take a break from all the shopping and eating to call your mother huh?"

She shook her head. "I officially quit shopping."

Angela chuckled. "Maura's got you holding all those bags again?"

Jane nodded. "Mhm."

"Well I warned you. You girls need a plan when you go somewhere, that's how you end up with things I never see you wear anyway…" She continued on, it sounded like she was outdoors somewhere but only because of the wind sweeping in between her words. There was no traffic, no other voices Jane could detect so she imagined she was in her garden.

"—Just got off the phone with Frankie." Jane cut off when her mother began to ask about articles of clothing Jane hadn't worn since she was a teenager.

"Really? Has he eaten?"

"I don't know Ma, I'm all the way in New York."

"I'm worried about your brothers."

"I'm worried about you."

There was a small pause, the kind that told the younger woman that Angela had caught on to where this was going and was trying to figure her position. "Ma."

"You kids need to stop worrying so much."

"Kinda hard given everything that's going on."

There was another pause. "There isn't anything going on that you all should be worried about, that's what I told Frankie."

"Is the cancer back?"

"Yes."

Jane felt her stomach drop at how sure she sounded. "…Well… Is he getting treatment?"

Angela's effort was audible as she hiked herself up onto the small garden bench between Maura's kitchen back door and her own front door before dusting off her jeans. This morning she had decided to rotate some soil in preparation for their spring plantings. It was an activity that she and Maura usually enjoyed doing together once it started to get warmer, but the matriarch needed something to do with her hands on her off day, and seeing as how everything was clean, and literally everyone's laundry was done, she decided the ME wouldn't mind her starting a little today. "He hasn't decided."

"He hasn't decided what?"

"We were supposed to go to an appointment together, he was scared because of how quickly he started feeling bad, he called me you know…" She tried to think of what to say next. "He doesn't want you kids to worry."

"Sure looks that way with all this commotion he's been kicking up."

"Your father hasn't always made the best decision—"

"Lydia."

"That poor girl has been through enough."

"Of this family I'll say." She thought of Tommy and the tuxedo and TJ and the zoo then. "How could you help him after all of that?"

"He's your father—"

"—Yeah I know, well aware Ma, That's something I don't think any of us are gonna forget, but he broke your heart, pretty much left you homeless, and—"

"—And what good has ever come from thinking of all the negative things, Janie, especially when he's sick like this—"

"It doesn't erase them!"

The line fell completely silent.

Angela brought her new cell phone to her other ear. "Honey." She began calmly. "It is because of all those things that happened to me in the past that helped me wake up and realize we all need a little help every now and then" She could Jane exhaled on the other line. "I am a happy grandmother, a proud mother, and I am in the heathiest relationship I have ever been in in my entire life. I am going to help your father, and I am going to do that because I am in a place where I can. Do you understand?"

Jane nodded once. "Yeah."

"You don't have to agree."

"I don't."

Angela frowned. "Well then we don't have to talk about it."

Jane suddenly felt guilty. "Ma it's just that…. You're my Ma."

Angela chuckled softly. "I know sweetheart."

"If anything happens to you again because of him—"

"It's very advanced, this time around, Janie."

Jane frowned. "It is?"

"From what I understood; you know all that medical mumbo jumbo goes over my head sometimes…" She regarded the plot of soil she had been working. "… We won't know how bad exactly until this next visit."

Jane sat with that for what seemed like eternity. "Doesn't help that he's still drinking…"

"No, it doesn't."

She shook her head at the whole situation and sighed heavily into her free hand before rubbing at her temple. "What do you need?"

Angela smiled at the gesture. "Nothing, Ron is helping me with the medical appointments."

"Ron is helping you?"

"He is a Doctor, Janie."

"Yeah I know it's just." She shrugged to herself. "This is a lot to take in I guess."

"It's uncomfortable."

Jane huffed at that. It sounded something like Maura would say. "You sound like Maura."

Angela finally sat back on the bench and stretched out her feet. "Enough about all of this for right now. We can talk more when you get back."

Jane wanted that "Okay."

"You girls should be enjoying the break. How is Maura? Her mother called the house looking for her."

"Which one?"

"Bio Mom."

Jane nodded with a little laugh. "I keep telling her she needs to just get rid of the house phone. No one uses them anymore."

"With how much you kids are attached to those things I don't see why either."

"I'll let her know, she probably already called her cell phone by now but she's in this conference all day pretty much."

"Are you two having fun?"

Jane thought back to the first leg of the trip and smiled to herself. "Yeah." She shrugged it off. "We uh, got to spend a lot of time with Tasha."

"Which I know you love." Angela nodded proudly. Jane hardly realized how firmly she placed herself in the young girl's life. It was that big heart of hers that told the other woman that though she disagreed with her decision with helping Frank, somewhere at some point, she'd understand it.

"Yeah she's this adult now it's crazy, too smart for me, keeping up with Maura. I dunno. We're talking about grad school when she gets back to Boston. It's a year or so out."

"Graduate school." Angela nodded quite impressed.

"Yeah… Maura and I were talking about the money of it the other night. It's damn expensive what they're asking for. I mean Tasha will get the scholarships but still."

"Well you know if she needs to make a little money when she gets back there is always waitressing at The—"

Jane shook her head firmly. "—She's not working at a bar, Ma. She's just a kid."

Angela laughed. "I thought she was an adult?"

"Well not really, no." Jane got up to make herself another cup of coffee in the kitchenette. "That's the last thing I need is some drunk rookie hitting on her."

"You'd lose your badge."

Jane chuckled and nodded. "Damn right I would, she's already gotten this far. You know I've seen it too many times." Albeit when Jane saw it now it usually ended in murder, still, getting knocked up way too young had to be prevalent enough without death too right?

"How is Maura?"

"Maura is Maura… this morning she brought me—uh coffee."

"Well that's nice."

Jane glanced at the parcel of what she supposed was honest to goodness pornography sitting on the small table in her suite. "Yeah she thinks of everything…"

"Have you met up with that hunk agent?"

Jane frowned. "Davies? Yeah we had lunch today Ma—"

"—Oh that sounds—"

"No no no, hold on a minute."

"What!?" Angela smiled. "I was just going to say that sounded nice…."

"This whole meddling this is getting old Ma."

"Who's meddling!?"

"You are, you asked Maura to help get us together?"

"I don't know what you're talking—"

"Maura told me!"

"Why would she do that!?"

"Don't get her involved in your nonsense." Jane warned. "Cut it out, seriously."

"I just want you to be able to find someone—"

"I will I will, God."

"—You know Frankie and Nina are going to get married and Tommy and Lydia…. Have TJ. I don't want you to miss out—"

"Ma, alright. I know."

"—You know you're not getting any younger, and with this new job, Lord knows when you'll have time to met someone and have babies—"

Jane rested her mug down and put a hand to her forehead. "How many grandchildren do you need?" She was exacerbated at how quickly it always came to that.

"Twelve." Angela answered seriously.

Jane huffed. "I'm hanging up."

"I love you, Sweetheart."

Jane sighed. "I love you too, Ma." She thought of something. "Be careful yknow? With all that stuff with Pop."

"Stop worrying."

"I can't."

"Try."

"Bye Ma…" When they hung up the detective sat back on her bed and waited in the silence of the hotel room until her kettle told her the hot water was ready.

##

Maura discreetly checked her watch before smiling brightly at the group around her. "—Yes, it is quite fascinating." She agreed.

"Do you think it's possible?" An NYU pre-med student with the hopes of a path in forensic pathology asked her.

"Well as you know we can not say finite until the right amount of research has been done, however in Boston we are very optimistic for its release." The new Mass Spectrometer TD7X had been finally committed to a release date sometime in the fall. The news broke over the course of that day and devoured all outside conversation at the New England Medical Officer's ethics conference.

"—I hear it can create literal carbon base copies of the matter on a molecular level." Another gushed.

"That feature has been confirmed to my understanding." Maura checked her watch. "If you'd all excuse m—"

"Doctor Isles!"

Thirty minutes later and an hour late Maura rushed out of the polished elevators at the Gansevoort Conference Center at New York City's Hudson Yards Basin and made her way into the marble lobby. She spotted Jane immediately and felt a soft tug at her lips hesitate between a frown or a smile.

The detective was seated with her long legs crossed in one of the large cream-colored sofa chairs with her coat on her lap and her chin on her knuckle, she was wearing the most severe case-face the ME had seen since Alice Sans invaded her life those short years ago.

As not to disturb her thoughts Maura made a slow and lateral approach into the other woman's direct line of sight and waited. Jane quickly picked her head up when the fragrance of Maura's perfume though faint tickled her nostrils. She smiled up at her as she began to stand as if she hadn't been at all lost in her own thoughts for more than an hour.

"Hey, you ready?"

"Hi." Maura smiled and reached a hand out to her arm. It was beginning to feel reflexive to reach for Jane this way in greeting. "I could ask you the same thing, I'm so sorry we ran late."

Jane frowned and checked her watch. "Oh.." She snuck a peak over at Maura. "I forgot to get pissed."

"I can give you some time."

"Nah." They smiled at one another. "You got everything? Cost? Briefcase? Nerd swag?"

Maura took her hand back and quickly accounted for all of her belongings. "Yes, shall we?" Jane reached for her briefcase and Maura held it from her. "I do believe I can manage." Her smile was teasing but her message clear.

Jane nodded as they started toward the exit. "This place is huge, where were you guys?" She craned her neck to finally notice the painting on the ceiling in the grand entryway.

"We were in smaller rooms upstairs, tomorrow though, for the lecture of micro organic chemistry and criminalist procedurals we will be what is call their Dome. The entire ceiling is made out self-cleaning polyurethane cut to resemble glass, it's quite spectacular."

"Self-cleaning polyurethane…"

They stepped out into the late evening chill and immediately remembered their coats. Once Maura settled into her down lined jacket she adjusted her hair about her face and nudged Jane softly who was fighting with her scarf. "Spumante's Pizzeria is a mere three blocks away."

Jane's face lit up as she rummaged in her pockets for her cell phone with the information for the sushi restaurant she had looked up. "But Keeley's Sushi is one block away."

Maura's brows knitted together in amusement. "Both?"

Jane shrugged goofily. "We are on vacation."

Keeley's Sushi was a small narrow establishment with a hand full of stout wooden tables decorated with red and gold placemats. The mood tonight seemed lively, the crowd: a mix of people from young to old. Maura and Jane just happened to get there as one of the tables were being switched over from a previous guest eating alone. As they waited for their waiter to wipe down the surface and place their new chopsticks down Maura turned to Jane, curiosity getting the best of her intensions to wait.

"Is this later? May I ask about your day now?"

Jane had been trying to figure out what the decorations above them even were. She looked down at Maura and wore a sheepish sort of smile in apology. "Huh?"

"How was your day?"

"Oh." She nodded and motioned a hand toward their new table. The waiter was handing her menus. As they sat Jane tried to think of what or even how to express what her day had even meant to her. "I had lunch today with, Davies." She noticed the ME's smile fade. "I mean… not like that, Maura." She waved in order to back track.

Maura nodded once. "How, then?" She asked curiously.

Jane shook her head at herself. "He called me this morning; he had just gotten into the city—"

"I hadn't been aware he intended to be here." They stared at each other again. "Had you?"

"Well he mentioned something about it, yeah."

"Interesting."

Jane sat with that and decided she didn't like it. "Anyway, so he asked if I wanted to get lunch and I was thinking now was as good a time as any to um… y'know." Maura shook her head no. "Tell him that I was…" She pinched at paper chopstick holder that sat at her right as they looked at one another. "…Monogamous."

Maura exhaled softly, she almost seemed amused as she dipped her chin before looking back up at Jane. "His response?"

Jane seemed to relax a little too. "Well he seemed okay." She reached for the glass of water just placed before them. "He'd kind of have to be."

"He moved his travel plans around in order to be in town when you took your exam." She pointed out.

Jane nodded. "Yeah, but I moved my exam date back so I can take it up here so we could go together."

Maura smiled at the raised eyebrow Jane tossed her. "Yes, that too."

"It was okay, food was pretty good, we talked a lot about the job after that." She paused. "It's okay that I didn't tell you before, right?" Maura nodded. "Because I didn't know how'd you feel especially after what you said and what I said… But I didn't want to just send him a text message. That didn't seem right."

Maura considered her surprise again at their meeting and decided that she wasn't as perturbed by it as she might have thought she would be. "I am fine with it, Jane." It wasn't like Jane to be reckless with important things, and this, they had both agreed was quite important. She could get over this amount of withholding. "I didn't expect you to say anything after what I said the other night you know." It was interesting though to know Jane went out and did the very thing she eventually hoped for.

Jane nodded. "I know, it was just something I had to do…He thinks I'm with Ray by the way."

"Raymond?" Maura looked horrified now.

"Is his name Raymond?"

"Yes."

"So his name is Raymond Ray?"

Maura shook her head. "Yes, Jane. Legally."

"Hm…"

"How on earth would he come to such a conclusion?"

Jane chuckled at how seriously put off the ME was. "I was taking over some cases of his when Davies first came to Boston and I guess he mistook my annoyed face for my flirty one? I don't know, but I'm just letting you know that that's where the real completion lies."

Maura laughed. "He's actually a very nice man."

"He drools on the break room tables."

"That could be from an abnormality of the salivary glands, it's more common than you would imagine." She motioned to her throat. "His are enlarged."

"I cannot believe your defending him right now." She stopped herself. "I cannot believe you were checking out his glands."

"You could do worse."

Jane laughed at the banter. "Um excuse me, you have done worse."

Maura waved her off. "If this is about Byron—"

"It's always going to be about Byron." Jane deadpanned.

Maura waved her off. "So you didn't tell Cameron it was me." She concluded. Jane shook her head no. "Is there a particular reason why?"

Jane shrugged suddenly becoming a little shy. "Honestly?"

"Please."

"I just didn't want him thinking about you in any other way than Doctor Isles."

That was interesting. Maura nodded. "Do you feel he would lose respect for me professionally?"

Jane shrugged. "Y'know back home everyone knows you as Maura, you're already part of the family in so many ways… We've been through a lot together and I guess it'll be weird for a bit but they'd get it eventually right?"

Maura smiled softly. "I hope so."

"Davies…. Davies doesn't know about anything; he doesn't know about Tasha or Hoyt or… I kinda felt like that was a personal thing about you and me that he didn't really need to know."

Maura tilted her head. "I see."

"You're looking at me weird." Jane pointed.

"Well it would have been more convenient thinking it were because I was a woman, but your reasoning is interesting." She wondered what peer reviewed works were out there on the topic. "It isn't easy being a strong woman in any field. We are often oversexualized."

Jane shrugged. "It just didn't seem relevant for him to know."

"Do you think—" She was cut off by their waiter returning to take their orders. Jane let Maura order for the both of them and before they knew if they were alone again. "Did you manage to get a hold of Angela today?" Maura asked deciding that she'd ask Jane what she was going to ask at a later point. Jane responded by exhaling loudly and the ME quirked a brow. "May I take that as a yes?"

Jane nodded and sat up from her somewhat slouched position. "The cancer is back."

"Oh, Jane." She stopped herself from regurgitating any and all statistics about reoccurring cancer cases in men her father's age and instead reached a hand out to cover Jane's wrist. The detective looked down at the small act of comfort before picking her up her hand and moving it away. She didn't know if she wanted to be comforted or not. Maura seemed to understand.

"She said it's pretty bad this time around and she wants to help him."

Maura took her hand away and nodded at the information. "And how do you feel about her decision?"

"I don't understand it."

"You're very close to the situation."

Jane thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, she's my mother. He's just…" She waved it off. "Anyway she said she didn't want us to worry, but now I'm officially worried. He's not trustworthy."

"Angela seems to trust him enough."

"Alright but no offense to Ma or anything, he's the longest guy she's been with and for a while the only guy."

Maura clasped her hands on the table. "Do you think she's naïve?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"So then?"

"I think he'd do anything to wriggle his way back into our lives."

"So, you think he's lying?" Maura raised a brow.

Jane shook her head. "No I don't think that either." The ME waited patiently. "He.. He doesn't deserve her kindness Maura; you know Ma would take a stray jaguar off the street if she thought it didn't have any place to go."

Maura chuckled at the real likely hood of her at least loosing sleep over the stray cat. "Jane your mother has one of the biggest… theoretically speaking, hearts I have ever come to know." She motioned to herself. "She had nothing to gain from accepting me into your lives the way she did. Or Lydia."

Jane made a face. "You cannot put yourself and Lydia in the same sentence."

"Be nice."

"I know what you're saying, and I agree, I get it, she's a nice lady, all the kids on the block thought so too. It's just that… What if he takes advantage of this again?"

"And what if he is actually very sick, and very lonely?"

Jane sighed at that and stared the ME down only to find her staring right back. "I don't want him to die, Maura." She said it with as little emotion as she could, but the way Maura was looking at her meant she didn't by it at all.

"I know you don't, Jane."

"But I don't trust him either."

Maura extended her hands. "Do you trust your mother?" Jane nodded easily. "Well then let's see what she would like us all to do, and trust that for the time being it's the correct call." She could tell sitting still with the idea made Jane uncomfortable, but after a few more moments in silence she nodded slowly.

"It's Ma's call."

"It is isn't it?"

Jane nodded again., this time firmly. "Yeah, you're right." She smirked softly then. "Thanks."

Maura's smile didn't show her teeth and lived primarily in her eyes. "You're very welcome."

After sushi and more catching up from the day apart the two walked the few extra blocks to find an incredibly packed pizzeria. So after ordering their slices they stood outside on the sidewalk and ate quickly like a handful of people who had just arrived. When some tomato sauce clung cutely to the tip of Maura's already chilled red nose Jane hesitated before reaching for it and brushing it away mid conversation before shrugging away the ME's sweet look with a blush of her own. After pizza, and sushi, and sorbet and ice cream, the two hopped in a cab and headed back toward the hotel. When they arrived they promised to meet back up in Maura's room once they were changed into comfortable clothing for a night cap. Jane was instructed cheekily to bring the porn with her, and as the detective knocked on Maura's door a half hour later in sweats and a long sleeve blue and grey BOD sweatshirt she glanced down at the package under her arm nervously.

It had better not be porn.

"Tomorrow I have time before my lecture to stand in line for them." Maura answered the door clad in silky mauve pajamas with her cell phone to her ear. She mouthed "It's Tasha" to the taller woman as she stepped aside to let her in. "—Or we can have Jane wait in line and then you can meet her."

Jane got out of her sneakers and rested the parcel down on an end table. "Wait hold on a minute, don't I get a say in what I do with my morning?" Maura merely glanced at her over her shoulder before going back to opening the bottle of wine she had picked out earlier in the room service catalogue.

"—right, or we can simply purchase them… Well it would be my treat… "

Jane shook her head in amusement at being ignored before going into the suite further and grabbing the remote control from its stand near the mini bar and letting the large plasma tv screen descend from the ceiling with a push of a button. The Mets were playing, and she was curious about how that worked. Maybe she'd be a Mets fan, anyone against the Yankees was okay with her…

Eventually Maura came out of the kitchenette and noticed Jane relaxing and watching baseball. Her phone was still to her ear. "Well that's impossible, you cannot splice an ion that microscopic. Hold on… Jane?"

Jane looked up from her spot on the bed "Oh you noticed I've arrived."

Maura chuckled with the phone receiver to her clavicle. It wasn't too late, only nine at night, the bar downstairs had to still be open. "Can you go downstairs for something? A corkscrew? It's specific."

Jane looked from Maura in her pajamas to the tv screen. "I—Now?" She asked looking back at the blonde.

Maura looked between Jane and the tv screen. "The corkscrew here is in disrepair."

"You broke it?"

"I did not break it." Maura could hear Tasha laughing on the other end of the phone.

"I'm just starting to relax…" She groaned. "Why can't we just knock the thing over the dresser here?"

"That is now how these closures work." She smiled at the woman who was pulling herself off the bed. "And I am not simply knocking a 2001 Chateau Margaux over anything."

"What happened to room service?" She asked getting into the shorter woman's personal space in an effort to intimidate her into letting her go back to watching baseball. "This place too fancy for room service?"

Maura quirked a playful smirk at the new use of height between them and pushed her body away softly. "Will you call them? I need a restaurant grade utensil for an old cork like this." Jane nodded and hurried back to the bed to watch the inning as she called room service. Eventually the corkscrew arrived, and Tasha and Maura finished planning their plans to get Broadway tickets tomorrow. The Chief Medical Examiner poured two glasses of the historic wine and brought Jane over a glass before sitting beside her on the large bed. Maura watched with a laugh caught in her throat at the detective sitting up, taking a moment to slosh the liquid about while peering into the glass curiously before taking a large unsophisticated gulp and immediately bringing her attention back to the baseball game.

"What do you think?" She waited a moment to enjoy her own sip to ask.

Jane looked at her. "It's okay."

Maura nearly dribbled on herself. " _Just_ okay?"

Jane shrugged. "I liked the other pinot thing we had the other night more."

Maura looked down at her glass and had to laugh. The Pinot Noir they had had was a twenty-five-dollar bottle of wine, this _cru classe_ cost five times that and Jane would probably ultimately prefer a beer. She had to laugh at herself, for she had picked it out in order to impress her date forgetting momentarily that Jane was still Jane.

Noticing the ME laughing Jane looked back at her curiously. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You're making fun of me aren't you?"

"I am not, I promise." She took another sip from her glass and marveled at the layers of complexity and acidity. "I am glad you liked the pinot noir." She decided. That alone took seven years of coaxing, Maura realized though with a great deal of affection for the other woman that she'd gladly offer another seven more if she'd begin to start appreciating older vintages next.

Jane nodded and for a happy little moment she could feel Maura sit beside her and try and understand what was happening on screen. "That's Esteves, he used to play for us." She pointed out before taking another sip from her glass.

"Do we harbor any ill will towards him for his departure?"

Jane shrugged. "He was just a rookie when he started with us."

"Hm."

After a few more moments Jane looked up to see Maura getting off of the bed. She followed her form in the loose pajamas as she went over to the kitchenette and picked up the parcel she had brought her that morning. Like a gun being waved around at a robbery Jane could hardly look anywhere else. "That's not porn, right Maura?"

Maura let out a breathy laugh. "Of course not." She turned and looked at the relief wash over Jane's face. "Besides, I prefer to read erotica."

Jane nodded quickly at that new piece of information. "I— yeah okay."

Maura came back over to the bed pretending to not take pleasure in leaving the other woman a little dumbfounded. "I thought these might help us." She sat beside Jane with the parcel in her lap and her wine glass in her left hand.

"What is it?" Jane asked now completely engrossed with the packages contents.

"Media." Maura explained simply as she reached her right hand in and pulled out several DVDs.

Jane put her wine glass down on the floor carefully before leaning over to help her take out the disks. She began to read their titles "Venture, Dealings On A Highroad…" She furrowed at the last title. "I can't even read that."

"It's Finnish."

"All of it?"

Maura chuckled and took the DVD from her hands. "It's a movie about two women hiding a relationship from their religious parents."

"In Finish?"

"Yes it appears so." She could read the skepticism on Jane's face. "We don't have to start there."

Jane looked down at the DVDs a little overwhelmed. "Maura I think maybe… Maybe this stuff doesn't apply to us."

Maura took a sip from her wine glass. "I know, but we've agreed that we don't want to share these developments quite yet with our family and friends correct?" Jane nodded. "It only took Tasha half an evening together with us to suspect something, that rate of observation is hard to ignore."

Jane nodded. "Alright so… they're gonna show us how not to act?"

"That was my hope. It seems we've always operated in a particular manner towards one another…" Maura began to doubt her idea. "You don't feel comfortable with this." She read.

"No no, it's just…" Jane chuckled. "A little weird."

Maura looked back to the DVDs on her lap. "We don't have to watch them."

Sensing she made the ME feel awkward Jane tried to turn the whole thing around as quickly as possible. "You know what, Maur? I think you may be on to something with that whole rate of observation part." Jane reached for a DVD at random. "Let's watch this one."

Maura offered her a little smile. "We don't have to, Jane. It was merely an idea." The detective was already out of her seat figuring how to activate the DVD player.

"We're researching right? It's for science."

Maura stood to help her. "For science, yes."

##

"Pause it!"

Maura laughed as she reached for the remote control again. At this rate they were never going to finish this movie.

"Pause it, Maura. Pause it."

"Give me a second." She fumbled with the remote in the dark.

They had nearly finished the bottle of wine she opened and were laughing so much she was sure she spilled about thirty dollars worth of it onto the Egyptian cotton bedspread, and that was likely to cost her credit card double that amount upon check out. She would have usually distracted herself with finding the best homemade alkaline solution to rid the sheets of their stains, but Dr. Maura Isles was more concerned with the levels of oxygen her brain was getting with this much laughter. It couldn't be healthy.

Jane jumped out of bed and pointed to the screen. "That is such bullshit!"

Maura could hardly contain herself. "Jane please—" Their laughter cut her off. "Sit, sit, you're blocking it."

Jane continued to point to the television. "There is no precinct on earth that is going to allow any detective an unmarked like that, look at the rims on that thing!"

The scene was stilled on Detective Quinn Lawson's unmarked mustang and Jane was not having any of it.

Maura coughed at a fit a giggles. "It's just a movie!" She had said it forty-three times already, but that fact of fiction did not seem to deter a tipsy Jane Rizzoli from debunking every single procedural element of the film she could. "Get back into bed, we won't finish like this." It was already midnight.

Jane climbed back onto the large bed. "Maura the things got twenty inch chromed out rims, those things probably cost Cavanaugh's pension." She crawled back to the head of the bed where Maura sat.

"I know, I know." She soothed, the mirth overflowing in her eyes. "It's crap."

Jane grinned as their faces got close. "Whoa, take it easy."

Maura waved her away. "I'm going to press play."

Jane got back under the covers they were sharing, "I don't know what they are doing here in New York but I may have to transfer if that's the kind of unmarked I get assigned." She shook her head and picked up her wine glass. "How many years do you think she has on her jacket?"

Maura laughed before shushing them both. "I am pressing play."

"This is ridiculous."

The movie was about a homicide detective following a series of call girl murders while "dating" a call girl consistently found at scenes of the crime. It was well shot, well-funded, but Jane just couldn't believe any of it and Maura found her commentary hilarious.

"Do you think they care about each other?" Maura asked as the two on scene actresses were once again waking up in a hotel room together.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Maura she's clearly just sad and needs to get laid."

"Oh but Jane they're holding one another—"

"That doesn't mean she's not the murderer."

Maura turned to look at her. "Do you think she is?"

"Hell yeah I think she is." Jane looked at her as if she were crazy. "Maur all this circumstantial evidence leads to her, the MO fits too."

"That doesn't mean she did it."

"Think like a cop."

"I'm not a cop, I'm a scientist, a doctor, there is still more evidence to overturn."

"The boot prints at the first crime scene?"

Maura nodded proudly. "Yes, they are clearly not belonging to Lenora, she seems to be relatively lightweight too."

Jane shook her head and took a sip from her glass. "The director just threw us that to get distracted. AND any cop worth their badge is not going to get involved with a material witness, not matter how hot they are."

Maura quirked a brow at that. "Do you find her attractive?"

"What?"

"Do you find her attractive?"

Jane looked between Maura and the movie. "What?"

Maura paused the movie. "Answer me."

Jane looked at her in the dark with a laugh in her throat. "No, I don't want to."

"Why not?" Maura looked back to the screen. "She is blonde."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not supposed to mean anything, Jane. Merely an observation."

"Alright so she's pretty." Maura began to grin. "Oh my God—"

"Pretty?"

"Maura press play."

"Yes yes, sure." Maura was grinning so hard her face hurt but decided to press play before Jane turned into a tomato and they had a real medical emergency on their hands.

Once they movie was finished the two snuggled up close finding it heard to fall asleep after such a commotion.

"I'm a little drunk." Jane whispered.

Maura chuckled. "Hm? Are you?" She was a little past a point she relatively would say she were comfortable with as well, but currently Jane's arms were wrapped around her torso under the covers and her arms were about the detective's waist and if it meant they were drunk well then that was okay, she'd be obliged to agree.

"And I think you're way prettier than Lenora." Maura giggled. "I'm serious." Jane nodded.

"You are a little drunk."

"Told you."

"What was your favorite part of the movie?"

This took Jane some time. "When she turned in her badge."

"Really?" Maura asked louder than she intended.

"That's a big deal, the biggest."

"She did it for Lenora. To help her."

"Cause I guess she wasn't the murder…."

"I was right."

"You always get to be right."

They smiled at each other.

"You think they're gonna make a sequel?" Jane finally murmured.

Maura chuckled at how cutely it sounded, as if hoping with all her being that they would. "I can check."

"I'd watch it."

"Well then they must."

"What was your favorite part?"

Maura tried to concentrate enough to remember a part she had seen long enough without Jane pausing to remember its context. "Watching it with you." She decided.

Jane smiled softly. "See that right there, that's gonna get us into trouble."

"How?" Maura smiled as Jane's arm moved across her back a moment before settling where they were. She'd wish she hadn't stopped.

"We were supposed to be looking at things we can't do."

"What did you gather, Detective?"

Jane grinned at the way she said it, like the character in the movie. Maura chuckled quietly at the response it yielded. "That!" Jane pulled her closer. "Making me laugh."

"I can't make you laugh?" They were pressed together impossibly close now.

"No, you can't."

"Well then you can't make me laugh."

"Maura, I can't help that I'm incredibly funny, I can't help that." The detective shook her head.

Maura put a hand in her face to still her. "Is that what you think? That you're funny?"

"Get your hand out of my face."

"No." Maura challenged but then yelped when Jane licked her palm. "Jane!" Jane laughed as Maura squirmed about in her arms. She held her closer and leaned in to lick her cheek now. "Jane Rizzoli!" A struggle ensued mixed with grappling and tickling, stolen kisses, and various pitches of laughter, before they knew it there was a physicality to their roughhousing that got a little too playful and with one falsely perceived movement Jane was shot into sobriety as the metallic richness of her own blood filled her senses.

"Ow!"

"Jane?"

"Shit!" The detective grabbed at her face.

"Jane!" Maura pushed her shoulder back so they were both sitting upright now. "Jane." She sobered up immediately and was trying to pull the other woman's hands away from covering her face. Her brain routing a hundred million mishaps faster than she could process.

"You punched me!" Jane yelled from behind her palms.

"I didn't mean to!" Maura stomach filled with dread. "Jane, just let me see, let me see." She was able to get one hand away from the detective mouth and when she saw blood, she was quick to roll over to the side and turn the nightstand lap on in time to see Jane spitting several times into her palm. "Oh." She gasped and quickly covered her own mouth when she saw why.

Jane looked from her bloodied palm up at the ME, shock still wide in her eyes. "What oh? Oh what?" She could barely move her bottom lip and there was a ferocious pain ebbing from her lower gumline.

Thinking quickly the blonde leaned over to inspect her palm and before Jane could stop her, she stuck her fingers to the saliva and blood there and picked up Jane's bottom front tooth to bring to her attention.

Jane looked at it skeptically for a moment before darting her eyes toward the ME in when realization hit. "You knocked out my tooth!?"

Maura winced. "I…" She had. "Yes."


	27. Chapter 27

The ME crossed her legs and frowned down at the small device in her hands for not helping. Apparently, the hospital's server prohibited access to her favorite medical journal archives, particularly the entry she passed over on "cosmetic" dentistry. Maura swallowed thinly in protest at the ninth error message window and adjusted a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear as she tried to focus on something else. Slipping her cell phone into her purse the ME gathered the small plastic pharmacy bag with Jane's belongings in it up so she could uncross one leg and cross the other.

She had already been there an hour.

Did they really need to start wrestling one another like two children? Was it really that important to get the upper hand on the other woman? Was it even worth it? What would drive her to do something so reckless?

She had asked herself these questions repeatedly, ever frustrated at whatever cognitive bias or mental fallacy she allowed herself that stopped her from getting to an answer, well, an answer that she liked anyway.

Because Maura did like it, she more than liked it, she was enjoying it immensely. In the moment it had been exhilarating, and through her inebriation she could remember feeling a strong desire for the other woman, and an even stronger desire to shut the detective's cockiness down a notch, to win. She wanted to use her body to win instead of simply wording away a situation knowing no one in the room bothered to challenge her. Jane had challenged her in a new way, and it made Maura's blood run hot, and made her laugh all at the same time, and yet…

She had hurt her best friend.

A small voice inside her suddenly asked if she were feeling this way because she felt guilty. It had spoken out several times over the course of the wee morning, and each time the medical examiner examined it with indifference before tossing it aside and returned to her worried thoughts as if sifting through recycling.

And what was so hard about putting the tooth back into its socket anyway? Or preforming a standard root canal? Why was it taking so long? Was there a complication with the anesthesia? Had Jane's original tooth been misplaced? Dental surgeons lacked critical understanding of human musculature anyway, was there a problem Doctor Newman encountered that his obnoxiously big ego couldn't handle?

"Isles?"

Maura jumped out of her chair startling several people around her in the emergency waiting area. "Yes?" She cleared her throat "Yes, I am here."

The elderly nurse who had just called her wore creases in her face so dark and permanent it almost looked like she applied them with makeup, and her hair: a nest of sorts, was fashioned together by a child hair clip and hanging limply at the sides of her face. She seemed more capable of spreading bacterial meningitis than administering fluids properly, but at this current moment Maura didn't care if Vladimir Popov himself were assisting in the procedure. The mere fact that she was left to wait without the slightest indication on Jane's current situation was causing her an anxiety she had not seen in many many years. Her palms seemed incapable of resting still on her pant and a parasympathetic response caused her to perspire more than normal…

It was all very uncomfortable, and if she didn't get some answers soon she was going to start making phone calls.

"She's out," The crow smiled as best she could from behind dentures.

Despite her own surely disheveled appearance Maura made efficient movements to gather their things and approach the woman holding the medical hall door open for her. "Thank you." She hurried out as an afterthought.

"Doctor.— Was it?"

Once Maura entered the hall the nurse hobbled beside her and asked

"Yes." She answered simply as she slowed to keep their pace and calm down a little. She had arrived feeling extremely guilty and stupid, and at some point, Jane had quieted down out of sheer annoyance before they were separated. It all happened so fast that she didn't really have time to explain to Jane how sorry she was, and now that the ME was about to see her monogamous again, she was uncertain of what mood the Italian would be in.

Getting to the emergency room alone had been an event.

Jane swearing, Maura rushing about getting dressed, more swearing, at one point they had actually lost the tooth to the duvet, and then getting a cab, and then bribing the cab driver to move at a rate that was most definitely illegal, and then more swearing…

"—I had a car down there once, back when people owned cars, nowadays Youber this and all—"

"—Was there any indication that something might have happened during the procedure? To have it last this long I mean?" Maura didn't really much care for small talk to begin with, and it was currently seven forty-three in the morning, her second morning of the day in fact. The alcohol she and Jane had consumed sucked the moisture from her face and was leaving her system to operate below their normal levels of dehydration. She wanted information she could process, not small talk about someone's car she had never known or would never know.

The nurse stopped walking and paused her story about the time she was once in Boston and looked up at Maura with a little grin. "She ain't dyin'."

Maura stopped as well. "In 2009 The Center for Decease Control and Prevention reported that the death rates for women undergoing routine surgeries maintained several integers above their male counter parts for no apparent reason."

Something then changed in the shorter woman's face and if it weren't so tired Maura would have recognized a softness there. "Down here." The nurse motioned toward the beige door to her right.

The first thing Maura noticed was a nurse attending to Jane who was sitting up and babbling away about something on the hospital bed Just the sound of her natural rasp made Maura calm immediately and stand a little taller as she entered the room.

To her right Jane's surgeon Dr. Newman was nodding at an intern who was ferociously scribbling things down on a pad the size of her palm.

"Is-h…moore…" Jane slurred.

"More, honey?" The nurse looked down at the full cup of water Jane had refused again. "You would like more?"

"Noooo." The detective sighed and rolled her head back onto her pillow dramatically. "M…ooorrr." She tried again before blinking slowly a few times and catching the light from the overhead florescent fixture with big eyes. "Sunny D." She began to laugh before reaching for the funny tasting surgical sealant in her mouth surrounding her tooth. The nurse beside her gently moved her hand away and watched as Jane hardly seemed to notice as something else caught her eyes.

Maura took two steps toward Jane before her presence was noticed by her surgeon and he crossed his arms to his chest and nodded when Maura looked to him curiously. "Oh yeah, she's stoned." Doctor Newman shooed away his intern and the crow away on his way to step in front of Maura's path and stick his hand out his hand proudly. "Tommy Newman."

Maura glanced at him. "Dr. Maura Isles, I believe we've met, Doctor."

Dr. Newman's perfect smile fell onto his angular cheeks momentarily and then he chuckled. "Maybe me too huh?" When he got no response, Newman cleared his throat professionally. "Detective Rizzoli did very well, we're optimistic."

"Was there gingiva nerve damage?"

Jane's head snapped back down to the room quickly at the sound of Maura's voice nearby. "Mor?" She mumbled to herself.

"-We were able to successfully situate the tooth so that healing should come in strongly. The only thing that became difficult was when we began the root canal procedure itself."

Maura crossed her arms as best as she could now fully engrossed in the report "I do not believe she flosses regularly."

Newman mirrored her stance. "She doesn't. We had some plaque build up initially that made it difficult for me to—"

Jane thought about herself, her being, her body, and realized, well no, she decided, that it was cool to say things because she could hear it really really loud in her own head, but it didn't seem like the world could. Maura was pretty much in arms reach but she wasn't even looking for her…

"Mora." She mumbled again as the doctors spoke before her and the nurse at her side attended to setting her up to slowly come off the strong pain medicine.

"I'm sorry, hon?" She leaned in closer to try and hear what the woman was mumbling.

Jane looked back over to her quickly. "My—" She started excitedly but stopped herself and thought about it. "I don't know." She flopped her head back over to where the doctors were speaking again. "I don't know…"

The nurse chuckled softly. "That's okay. You'll know what you want soon." She had been doing this a very long time and it always amused her how all sorts of people reacted to anesthesia. Once they came to though she had a laundry list of demands, she doubted "Detective Rizzoli" would be any different. She brought her attention back at her work as her patient studied the two doctors in the room closely.

"I see." Maura nodded; her brow furrowed in a critical manner. "What are the risks associated with that? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar."

"It could go one or two ways." Newman began again now using the back of Jane's chart to illustrate something. "If I were to draw the procedure would you find that helpful?"

Maura nodded quickly. "Very much so."

Jane began to wriggle around on the bed, apparently determined now to get out of it, but way too high to understand how. The nurse chuckled a little louder this time which brought all the attention in the room to Jane's apparent ability to sneak a bare leg off the edge of the bed.

"No no." The nurse chided with a softness only a mother could possess. "Here, maybe walking in a few hours? When you have some juice?"

Finally satiated with the exact happenings of the procedure and reminded once again of Jane's impatience Maura smiled at Dr. Newman. "Thank you, this has been very informative."

Newman nodded. "Just uh, one more thing." He flipped over the chart and scribbled something down and handed it to Maura. "My number, for her follow up."

Both Maura and the nurse frowned. "Oh." The ME nodded looking at the digits carefully before glancing over her shoulder at Jane goofing about with her IV cord now. She turned back to Dr. Newman and handed it back to him. "I'm currently seeing someone."

He nodded slowly. "Or y'know, you can just make that appointment with the agent at the front desk."

"I think I will."

"Yeah." He nodded slowly before clearing his throat and giving the nurse some order before walking out.

Maura finally turned to Jane who immediately dropped her IV and looked up at her from the bed with a huge cotton mouth bruised lipped grin. The ME chuckled softly.

She eased to her side. "Hello." She greeted warmly.

"Morah!"

Maura moved to sit beside the bed opposite the nurse and took Jane's hand in hers firmly before looking at the only other person in the room. "How long will she be in this state?"

The nurse nodded. "One more minute or so until she can clear away from the initial dosage, she will be groggy and should keep off her feet for the remainder of the day. We're starting to ween her off." Her eyes lit up with realization. "Maura." She read on the visitors sticker placed on Maura's blouse.

Maura had turned to glance at Jane who was just smiling at her from her pillow before turning back to the nurse "Yes?"

"She was asking for you as soon as she came out you know." The nurse began to gather her things. "I attempted to ask her what she wanted for breakfast but all I got was your name it seems." She shook her head finally able to draw the connection from the ME's posture and how immediately the restless woman in the bed seemed to be knocked over the head with bliss once she was able to get the other woman's attention. It could only be one thing. "Do you know if she likes prune juice or pear?"

Maura nodded. "Pear."

The nurse promised to return with the liquid meal before checking Jane's vitals one more time then leaving the room with the door slightly ajar.

Maura turned back toward the detective and watched as her big brown eyes followed her every movement sweetly. "Does this mean you are not upset?" She whispered after a moment of just staring at one another.

"Mmm." Jane tried. "This is…" She sighed and blinked a few times. "really weird, really… really weird.." She muttered. "You're…so bright, Mor."

Maura shook her head. "You are, very high right now, Jane. Can you understand that?" She laughed a little. "My goodness."

"Forever?" She wanted to frown, but the surgery she just underwent was in the way. "Cause wha 'bout Frankie?"

Maura smiled. "He'll be okay, I think he'd like to take care of you if he were here, I think everyone would." Jane seemed easily confused by this. "You take care of a lot of people, Jane. They'd leap at the—"

"You?" Maura tilted her head and tried to think of how to respond. Jane suddenly looked very sad.

"You'd like to take care of me?" She asked with a wrinkled forehead.

Jane nodded quickly. "For like… things."

Maura chuckled. "Delineations would be nice."

The detective shrugged once as a child might. "If you go outside." Maura nodded as Jane began to try and explain herself. "To look at stuff and like… forty-seven bugs come out I'd help you."

The ME laughed. "You're very sweet."

"They leave people alone."

Maura leaned her elbow out to rest her chin on her upturned palm. "How else?"

Jane's smile fell for a moment before it picked back up. "I can reach things."

Maura's smiled only grew. "High up?" She motioned with her hand high above her head before returning it to lean on.

Jane nodded proudly. "Big big way way high up." She stopped to yawn.

"That could be very useful around the house."

After more reasons why Jane was best suited to take care of her (most of which made absolutely no sense) the detective fell into a deep sleep leaving Maura both amused and touched at her antics. She didn't need anything from anyone, she never had and rather fancied the idea of being independent like that. She certainly didn't need taking care of. In fact if anyone had mentioned it while dating she found a reason sooner rather than later to end the relationship.

But what if forty-seven bugs did show up while she was out and about? That would certainly be problematic. What if there was something that got wedged behind a shoe high up on her deep closet shelves? Or she had forgotten her keys in old age?

Maura found it fascinating that Jane never mentioned money or a house or children or anything any other person had mentioned, and sure she was as high as a kite, but her thoughts and intensions were so very clear.

She wanted to be her companion in things, everyday things, boring things, seemingly forgettable things. She wanted to be her support. For a moment she sat there with that, looking down at Jane wondering how she should feel, how she felt, what Jane would say at her observation until she finally decided that it made her feel something she was not readily familiar with, love.

She'd remember that moment for as long as she lived. The week in New York would be blurred and lost to the retroactivity of the brain, but the small hum of the medical equipment, her fatigue, Jane's bruised lip, and the warmness in her chest induced by a plethora of hormones running about her system as she sat near the woman watching her sleep would never leave her. For she was admitting silently and only to her conscious, that her affection for Jane had reached a point of negative return.

##

"Are we on Earth?" Maura asked an hour later when Jane began to stir awake. She quickly glanced at Jane's vitals and nodded to herself before looking back at the woman in front of her who now looked more tired than childlike. She had hoped Jane hadn't caught her lost in her thoughts.

Jane exhaled heavily after wincing and sucking on her tooth some. "Mars."

"Ah"

Jane felt both a migraine collapsing her ability to really smell, and her tooth and entire mouth throbbing against her skin. It was a world of pain, a world of pain that hardly made sense for what she had felt coming in. "Why…" She took a moment to center her thoughts. "Why does everything hurt?" She slowly slid her head to the side to look at her best friend with red eyes. "Tell me the truth."

"They gave you a thorough cleaning." Maura leaned over some to look at her better from her seat on a small stool near the hospital bed. "And a root canal—"

"Another one!?" Jane winced at her exclamation.

"How many have you had, Jane?" Maura asked a little amazed at how little she knew of Jane's dental history.

"Two?" The detective watched Maura's face carefully. "One." She decided.

Maura shook her head in true disbelief. "How?"

"Remember two years ago—"

"You hid a root canal from me?" Who did that?

Jane wanted to laugh but decided maybe that would hurt too. "No, you were just… Out of town."

Maura looked at her incredulously. "Jane, you are incredible." She shook her head. "I don't appreciate being misled."

"I don't appreciate being punched in the face." She mumbled as she turned onto her back. "Yet here we are." The room fell quiet for a beat before Jane turned to look back at the blonde. She raised a brow when she noticed a subtle splash of mirth in her hazel eyes. "You-oh you think it's funny right?"

Maura began to try and fight her smile. "No, absolutely not."

Jane was grinning as best as she could now too, she could hardly help it. "Did you do this so I'd do that stupid juice cleanse with you?"

The ME's face changed. "Jane, I did not do this so you could juice cleanse with me, that is absolutely absurd—"

The detective crossed her arms and looked away while still smiling a little. "That's messed up, Maura."

Maura reached out for Jane's right hand and was able to pry it away from her arm softly. Jane still didn't look at her. "I would never hurt you for a juice cleanse." Jane looked over at her when she could hear that all jest had left the ME's voice. "I feel… incredibly foolish and juvenile." She nodded. "I am sorry, Jane."

Jane smiled as best as she could with silicon-gauze hardened around her tooth and gum. "We can just say I got mugged." She offered quietly.

Maura exhaled loudly with a tired sort of amusement. Their fingers laced together. "We cannot say that."

Jane looked over at her fondly. She could see the worry in the other woman's eyes and even though she herself was little embarrassed at the whole thing she mainly wanted Maura to know that it truly was going to be fine. "I'm okay." Jane whispered.

Maura leaned forward a little to detect any micro expression that would go against her claim. "Are you certain?"

Jane nodded. "Yes, Doctor I'm certain." They shared a soft moment. "Don't make this big deal." She warned already knowing the hell Maura had to have raised while waiting.

"Perhaps you'll think otherwise when the corticosteroids wear off."

"When they wear off? Maura this already sucks."

"You're in pain? What does it feel like?"

Jane huffed softly. "Like a third root canal."

Maura decided to ignore the number. "They can give you something for that Jane We just have to contact your primar—"

Jane shook her head quickly. "No."

Maura sat back some and let their hands naturally separate as she examined the other woman. "What can I do?"

Jane plopped back down against the doughy thin hospital bed mattress. "Just don't tell anyone back home you kicked my ass." Maura chuckled and the detective tossed her a little look. "Can we leave now?"

"We are not leaving until they clear you."

"What could happen now?" Jane shrugged. "They put the thing back in—" She reached to poke at the tooth in her mouth but frowned when Maura gently pulled her hand away. "—Maura." She groaned.

"What could happen is that you can risk getting a gingivitic infection."

"You made that word up."

Maura sighed. "I did not."

"Well what am I supposed to do here?" She was already moving about on the bed as if she were going to get out of it. "I'm fine—"

Maura stood to block her from tossing her legs over the side and running off, because suddenly that's exactly the look her best friend got. "Allow yourself time to rest." Jane frowned but did as she was asked. It made Maura chuckled softly as she brought the hospital blanket back up around her mid-section and began tucking her in. "Would you like an iced coffee?" She asked as she worked.

Maura's perfume filled Jane's senses and it was then that Jane fully remembered how they got here in the first place. Seconds before Maura's accidental blow the detective was contemplating what would happen if she leaned down and kissed her. The thought alone dulled the raw ache at her cheek and made her blush a little That she could be thinking of such things while Maura was being nice and tucking her in and offering to get her iced coffee... "We had a bit to drink last night huh?" She decided to say. Maura was meticulously in the process of tucking quarter inch patches of sheet just under Jane's leg when she looked up.

"Too much."

Jane didn't know why the truth bummed her out, but it did. "Yeah." She stretched a little. "Maybe next time we skip the movie."

Maura hadn't yet caught the implications of Jane's words and hummed thoughtfully. "I think in the end you rather enjoyed it."

"No homicide detective can afford to drive the car she had, it was inaccurate as all hell, Maura." She was adjusting her own pillow behind her back. "Besides by that point I was already pretty drunk…" She watched her best friend finish up about her feet and smile a little at Maura holding onto her left foot above the sheet as she examined her work. Jane wiggled her toes and the blonde smiled a little and found her face. "You paying attention to me or what?"

Maura let her hand run from her foot to her leg as she made her way back around the bed. "I have not stopped." She said honestly looking down at Jane's big brown eyes. "Have I missed something still?"

"Yeah." Jane craned her neck back some to see her whole face.

"What would that be?"

"The part where I say thank you for always looking out for me," A little smile cracked onto the examiners face and Jane couldn't help but feel her usually at the ready sarcastic quip fail her in exchange for a genuine half smile back. Maura leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth and Jane blushed before they both laughed cutely at how nice this new part was. "Alright enough." Jane ended her chuckle waving the ME away. "Get outta here."

##

Maura's hotel suite remained just as they had left it: in remarkable disarray. The bedspread was turned over in the craze of loosing Jane's tooth in it, there was a small droplet of blood dried from where it had settled on the white sheets. The empty bottle of Bordeaux sat on one of the nightstands beside a tall glass of water and two stained wine glasses.

Without saying a thing to one another Jane followed Maura right out into the hall and a few feet to her room entrance. The ME took a moment to rifle through her large bag until she located Jane's wallet and handed it to her. When the detective swiped into her room and held the door open for Maura she was able to sigh a breath of relief when she realized her suite had been serviced. The two stepped out of their shoes and Maura took a second to recalibrate herself to the inverse floor plan before sitting on the edge of Jane's bed and reaching for the phone to call about her room.

Jane rested her plastic pharmacy bag down in the kitchenette and leaned against it with a sigh. She hadn't been this exhausted for a while and that was really saying something considering the four sleepless days she spent searching for a murdering nanny seven months ago. Jane watched as Maura idly straightened her wrinkled pant with one hand and held the phone with the other. Her hair was up in a messy bun and spilling strands onto her shoulders. At least Jane had gotten to sleep, Maura had been up all night worrying and it showed.

"—Yes I have returned to find it unserviced…" Her tone wavered in politeness. She was really starting to feel her body slowly disobey her will of the mind and grow fragile in its fatigue. As someone gave her some excuse about block schedules and needing a facilities manager to survey whatever damage was done to the room before cleaning, Maura watched Jane move about out of the corner of her eye. "—Yes, I will hold." Fives minutes later and she was finally able to hang up. "Unbelievable." Maura sighed. She looked up and smiled softly at Jane balancing a cup of tea with both hands as she made careful steps toward her.

"It's a little full." she warned as she eased it down in front of the ME.

The strong richness of a rooibos chai filled the immediate air, and though the blonde could smell it's slightly off earthy character she could not have been happier in her life to see something other than thirty year old hospital tea bags without a label or place of origin.

She took the mug with both hands out of Jane's. "Thank you."

Jane put her hands on her hips and nodded at her work as if she herself had grown the tea.. "What'd they say?"

After an appreciative sip Maura relaxed her shoulders and shook her head slowly. Her mother always used to say there was never a problem a cup of tea couldn't fix, and in this moment she couldn't agree more. "They want to survey the room for damages."

"Damages? What damages?"

"You bled a little, I suppose they want to be sure to charge the right thing before someone services it."

"Well it's not like we left five minutes ago, we've been gone all night."

Maura took another sip. "They assured me I was next."

Jane nodded and motioned to her suite. "Well you'll stay here." It didn't leave much room for negotiation and when Maura simply nodded while enjoying her tea Jane felt proud to at least somewhat have solved the issue for her.

"Do you mind if I shower?"

Jane shook her head quickly. "No, go ahead." She bit her bottom lip when she realized Maura had no clothes here. It only crossed her mind that her room was literally next door and less than five feet away after she was already presenting Maura the laundered sweatpants and baseball tee she had gotten out of her suitcase.

Maura smiled at the articles of clothing and then looked at Jane. "I could retrieve something from next door—"

"— Yeah I was just thinking of that." She scratched the back of her head. "This stuff is pretty comfortable though; I've had that shirt for… A while." Stop talking, just stop talking. Jane cleared her throat. "It's comfier than anything you own that's for sure." She nodded after crossing her arms and watching Maura finger the shirt material thoughtfully.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It is." Jane nodded.

Maura found this highly unlikely, but then again, she mostly slept in the nude. "Have you ever slept in Bamboo Lyocell?"

"That's not what we ate last night at sushi?"

Maura let out a small breath of laughter. "No."

"Well no, I haven't. I had this shirt since I entered The Academy, it's been worn in to be softer than any bamboo thing."

Maura decided to give in. "Well I suppose I am so tired that the quality of sleep I retain in lesser fabric won't matter at this point." She tried to read the tag but found it worn blank over the years.

Jane chuckled. "Snob." She reached for Maura's cup of tea so she didn't have to place it down anywhere as she stood. "I could go next door if you want." She added softer now hoping she wasn't making things weird.

"Unnecessary." Maura gathered up the sweats and t-shirt and left for the bathroom. A moment later the shower was being turned on. They had switched work tops before, whole outfits once, but never comfort clothing. Jane had a random drawer in the guest bedroom of a few odd ends, most she had no recollection of purchasing, and Maura had left her citron colored raincoat and a random pair of woolen slacks at her place a year ago. The baseball fan supposed she could read into that, but again, the action seemed so insignificant that she wasn't even sure Maura had noticed it either.

When Maura exited the bathroom about twenty minutes later Jane was trying to busy herself with untying a knot in one of her sneaker laces that had never bothered her until fifteen minutes ago when Maura hadn't come out of the shower yet.

"How do I look?" The ME turned around once for effect.

"Like you're wearing my clothes." Jane answered a little amused at how the other woman walked about as if testing the clothing's range of motion.

"I don't suppose you can fully complete a lakshmanadesikendra routine in these." The ME frowned at the baggy sweatpants. "However they do a magnificent job of regulating body temperature." She nodded to herself and then looked over at Jane.

Jane stood "So I'm right?"

"I never said that." Maura nodded. The material was clearly inexpensive and in some areas she felt it thinning. "But I appreciate you offering me something to change into." Even though they were freshly laundered they smelt faintly of Jane, and that was something Maura supposed she never thought of as a preference for her, but now, surrounded in it, she agreed she liked. "They are going to call this room when next door has been serviced." She added as she walked over to the side of the bed to sit down and begin reaching for the hotel room phone connection cable.

Jane walked over to the side of the bed and watched curiously as Maura threaded the light cord with the phone cord until she was able to signal the one out for the telephone and unplugged it. She laughed. "Don't we need that?"

"I can't imagine it would take longer than a few hours." She rested the cord aside and then proceeded to get under the covers and close her eyes. "I do not want to be wakened when it occurs. To regain homeostasis I need to enter a second round of REM sleep over the next two hours…"

Jane laughed again. "I like the way you think."

The ME yawned quietly into her hand. "Thank you."

"When is Tasha going to cal—"

"Shh."

"This is my room!"

"Jane please." Her voice was much further away now.

Shaking her head to herself Jane decided she'd take a quick shower as well before quietly climbing into bed beside an already passed out Maura. They slept separately for a few hours before something loud in the hall stirred them both awake. Maura was laying on her stomach with the majority of the duvet surrounding her when she sleepily picked up her head and reached out for Jane. The detective smiled at the seemingly automated action and scooted closer to her so they could better share covers.

##

"Why are you whispering?"

Jane looked about the lavish in suite bathroom and it's imperfect marble. "I'm not whispering." She whispered back.

Frankie furrowed his brow. "You are."

Jane cleared her throat a little to try and bring it to just above a whisper. Maura was out for the count and showed no signs of movement at all. Jane knew that the ME was having a lot of trouble sleeping these days, the last thing she wanted to do was wake her up. "I'm not."

"Alright, whatever you say." Frankie laughed.

"We got an update?"

"Another murder."

"You're shitting me."

Frankie got up from his desk and walked over to the case board now littered with mugshots, bank records, phone records, surveillance footage stills, and receipts. "I'm drowning Janie." He scratched at the thick stubble. "Korsak is saying we're gonna pass it off to the Feds."

"The Feds!?" Jane caught herself and whisper yelled the same thing. "The Feds?"

"That's coming from Cavanagh, he's on the phone with their local field office now. They've been crawling around here for an hour."

Jane sucked her teeth. "How? Why? It's our jurisdiction, Frankie."

"Victim we found was an applicant for their IT division here in Boston, her acting enrollment CO called us to see if there was something to it."

What were the odds? Jane put a hand to her forehead and pinched the skin there. "What are the odds?"

Frankie nodded. He took down the latest photo and looked at it carefully. "She was young, full ride to Duke, from Boston originally, she came back for one last party with old friends guess where."

"Those docks."

"Yup. Same MO, Janie down to the same park." He shook his head. "Thing is, Khury is still in custody."

"We're looking at an organized crime now." Jane shook her head quickly at something. "Wait a minute the same park? The last scene?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't have uniforms on that whole damn block twenty-four seven?"

"The department was stretched way too thin, we don't have enough manpower, Korsak and I got a lead which had us way across town."

Jane pushed herself off against the sink counter where she was leaning. "So what? Now they get to swoop in and close our case? We were close."

"We weren't though Janie, all we had was some agreement gone wrong and way too many victims to justify even leading into it. This is way way bigger than we thought."

"So if Sal and Khury aren't the shot callers then who is?"

"Don't know, lucky for us your boyfriend got the call and is here, he's working with us instead of steam rolling the whole thing." Frankie glanced toward Cavanagh glass office wall where the federal agent sat waiting for the Chief to end his phone call.

Jane furrowed a brow. "Who?"

"Agent Davies, he got in just now, that tech recruit? Our latest victim? She was going to end up in his camp."

Jane tried to put all this together. "He's in Boston?" She had just seen him a day ago.

"Yeah, he's keeping us in the loop."

"What's Korsak saying?"

"Not much, never seen him this pissed."

Jane nodded to herself, at least she wasn't the only one. "I'll call him later."

"Yea, I think that's a good idea."

"You sound relived."

There was a long pause on the phone that confirmed that something maybe was off between them. "…They got the resources y'know?"

"Yeah, I know." They talked more about the case then Frankie had to go, he promised though to call her back and for that Jane was optimistic. Whatever she had done or not done she wanted to know, he was her brother, and as a family they'd need to all be on the same page very soon especially with their father being sick like he was. Jane took a moment to herself in the restroom to splash some water on her face and poke at the patchwork of dried dental gel surrounding her tooth.

Maura was exactly where she had left her, curled on her side facing the side of the bed where Jane had been laying. As quietly and as slowly as possible she lowered herself back into place beside her and sighed.

A large amount of time had passed because it came as a complete shock to the detective when she felt the bed dip gently beside her and turned to see Maura simply watching her from her spot at her side, wide awake. She let herself be amused and let Maura see it, she was not easy to sneak up on, and Maura had done it without even moving an inch. Their eyes settled on one another and the ME lifted her chin so it rested against Jane's shoulder in an intimate way.

"Your Self laughs at your mind, and its bold leaps." Maura's voice was thick with sleep, but there was a warmth to it that made Jane feel it as clearly as if she were standing in the sun.

"Shakespeare?"

"Nietzsche."

"Hm."

Maura examined her face in the dark. "Are you still numb?"

Jane moved her jaw about dramatically and found she had more sensation that when she had last checked. "A little."

"Is there pain?"

"A little." They looked at each other a long moment before Jane spoke. ""Imagine if they couldn't put it back?"

"I rather not." They both laughed quietly. "… At the hospital I had to write a statement." Jane raised a brow. "To put in writing what occurred."

"It was clearly an accident; we came in together."

"It's standard procedure. In case you decide to press charges."

Jane huffed. "Maura please don't tell me you were concerned about that."

"Of course I was not, but I was in a state of uncertainly and I wanted to do my best to cooperate."

"So what? Somewhere in that hospital is a domestic abuse file on us now?" She didn't like it.

"An occurrence report." She looked at Jane's face wondering what the slightly vexed expression meant, but then decided it would be better for them to simply move on from the whole ordeal entirely. "In it, I wrote that you struck me first."

Jane's brows raised. "You did not." She asked seriously. Maura's smile made her begin to smile. "That's not funny, Maura."

"It was a simple statement, Jane."

"I know…" She was going to shrug but decided she rather liked Maura's chin perched on her shoulder. "Sorry you had to go through all of that."

"The waiting area was festering with inadequacies. It took several minutes for me to sign in at all."

Jane made a face. "Sign in? Maura you're the Chief Medical—"

"—Of Massachusetts, Jane. We have our jurisdictions too."

"What so you're telling me you didn't save babies in Africa with the attending?" She shook her head no. "Where was Mr. Bowtie?"

"Dr. Hillnore is a dear friend—"

"Yeah sure, who's single now and has got a thing for Tasha, someone at least twenty years younger than him."

"He does not have a _thing_ for Tasha—"

Jane pointed to herself. "Jane Detective."

"Jane Delusional."

Jane grinned at their banter. Maura had since picked up her head and now rested a hand where her chin had been. "So you didn't badge or use anything, you just sat there?" She asked after a moment of mentally debating to lay out the overwhelming evidence against Hillnore's intentions and deciding against it.

Maura paused to reflect on the pure energy this morning had taken away from her. "I felt—" She began. "—very foolish, and inept in my ability to make things better."

Jane frowned. "It was just an accident, Maura."

"I know that." She nodded. "I hurt you though, in a physical way and that for a moment was difficult to reconcile." The ME dipped her chin against her hand and looked at Jane's face. "It was an experience I am glad to be rid of."

There was a question of forgiveness in the blonde's hazel eyes and Jane was surprised to see it. It made her want to hug the other woman, but she instead settled for placing her left hand on the ME's shoulder. "I'm okay, Maur." She reassured softly. "Soon I'll be able to eat hot wings again and this would all be forgotten." Maura chuckled softly.

"Actually, it is unlikely that the tissue will heal exactly the same way at which it came in."

"Not helping your case at all."

Maura let out an amused breath. "Yes, I am back tracking now."

"Good."

"How are you feeling otherwise?" Maura asked carefully. A lot had been revealed yesterday and Maura wanted to make sure Jane was metabolizing her father's illness in a healthy manner.

From her spot lying on her back Jane let out a small breath and smiled with her eyes at the other woman. "This?" She motioned between them before putting her hand back onto Maura's shoulder. "Our thing? Feels more and more solid every day, I can't wait to get good at it." She blushed a little at the admission, but in the room where it was just them Jane suddenly felt brave. "I want to." She added without sound and Maura's hazel eyes twinkled as she covered Jane's hand on her shoulder with her own in agreement. Jane picked herself up enough to place a chivalrous kiss on Maura's flushed cheek before laying back down in her previous spot. Maura's expression was of pure unadulterated fondness, and to be looked at like that made Jane feel unbelievably special. She wasn't used to such an attention and she was certain Maura knew that.

"And everything else?" The blonde asked slowly.

"It seems like everything else though is… Losing shape." She admitted quietly.

"That is a very strong analogy." Maura nodded and Jane nodded back at her. "Everything?"

"Maura, I don't even know where to start." She frowned at how helpless she sounded, but damn did it feel good to finally say it aloud to someone. She took a steadied breath and smiled a little at the ME who was hovered over her, studying her with a creased brow and a tender face. "Mm." She hummed to herself. "That felt good."

"The science is overwhelming." She lifted the corner of her mouth in a half smile, to show Jane she understood. "What is on your mind?"

Feeling as comfortable as she did in her own head Jane decided to open up fully. "I need to get Tommy and Frankie on board with Ma, even though I'm not."

"Angela seems to have a plan."

"That's what I'm worried about."

"Why do you believe Frankie and Tommy won't be on board?"

Jane just had a feeling their dynamic was changing. How could she say that though to a woman who had never had a sibling…? Well, one she grew up with at least. "Frankie was weird on the phone yesterday, and he was weird today…"

"He knows you very well." Maura nodded.

"Yeah…" Jane let that settle.

"When we get home, I think it would be best if you were honest with them about how everything is making you feel."

"I am honest with them."

"About their lives." Maura waited a beat for emphasis when she saw Jane's brow furrow in the processing of a different perspective. "You don't make it a habit of sharing what you feel with them, I've witnessed it."

"That's just how we were raised, Maura. I'm the big sister."

"So you are perpetually responsible for everyone's feelings?"

"No, but.." She sighed. "If I tell them what I told you, they…they won't really get it."

"A lot has changed; you might want to give them the opportunity to try, Jane."

The detective looked elsewhere. These were one of the moments where she felt their difference in upbringing caused direct friction with their realities. It rarely came about, but the detective felt uncomfortable talking about emotions, it was hard, and it never was expected of her, so she understood what Maura was saying but the reality was she rather liked the emotional privacy from everyone else. It was utter shit when you had to get something done like this, but most times, Jane felt comfortable in their dynamic. She looked aver at the ME again. "Frankie, Tommy, and I, sittin' at The Robber talking about our feelings?"

Maura smiled; she could see the message was sinking in. "Well, it doesn't have to be at The Dirty Robber, no."

"The only Rizzoli family counseling we ever did was during our flag football huddles."

Maura chuckled. "Jane."

"Alright, I'll try." She sighed loudly. "Y'know they're gonna think I've gone mad."

Maura smiled at her and rubbed her shoulder. "I think they'll be proud."

Jane glanced at her. "We gotta figure everything out anyway… For Ma." Maura nodded and Jane lay with that for a long moment. "Ma said she's pretty sure he's likely." She looked at Maura. "So… There is that."

"Mm." Maura simply tilted her chin in a nonverbal cue for the detective to continue.

"So I gotta talk to him, I'd want to, but he… Crossed a line with you and I don't know, Maura."

"I feel no offense."

"Yeah, but I do."

"Is it a large enough experience for you to not speak to him ever again?" Jane didn't answer and so Maura decided to at least leave that in a place where they could pick it up again. "We don't have all the information yet." She reminded.

Jane nodded. "Yeah, I know." The room fell silent, and Jane looked back over to the other woman when she settled her chin against her shoulder again. "Frankie called while you were sleeping, we had to turn the park murder case over to the Feds."

"Hm." Maura nodded; she had begun to reach for Jane's right hand as she listened. Her subconscious had recalled a medical study on the microchemical relaxing properties of human touch. "Now how does that make you feel?"

"Bad… and mad… and confused."

"Because you are used to closing cases on your own, and now it's more likely that you will be left out of that part of the process."

"Damn right."

"Don't we all need a little help sometimes?"

"I'm not used to being benched, Maura." Jane looked elsewhere for a moment.

"Is that what being here feels like, when you get those calls?"

She didn't look at her. "Yeah." It was hard to admit, especially because spending time with Maura while here was her number one priority, still she was sure the other woman understood it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

"How will you handle them when you are in Virginia?"

"I realize I need to get better at stepping away." She sighed.

"Ah, growth."

Jane wasn't sure why but it made her laugh. "Past due." Beside her there was motion as Maura settled herself against her side fully. Jane turned to look at her. "I'm tired all over again, Maura."

"I'm glad you shared all of that with me."

"Y'know, I just don't want to let anyone down." Jane decided that's what it all came down to.

Maura sighed. "Yes, I share similar feelings of anxiety at times. it is a universal condition, take comfort in that."

"What do you do?"

"I try and be kind to myself." She answered simply. "… and be intentional in where I place my energy."

The room grew silent again, and Jane would admit to feeling ten times lighter than when the conversation started. She wondered then if Nina and Frankie had talks like this, if her mother and her father had ever stayed up late, huddled close together, wondering about life and its uncertainties. Something told her that Vince and Kiki did, they just seemed the type, extraordinary in a sense, not the norm, but was this normal? Were she and Maura different, or was it as simple as finding someone who you trusted with all your worries and all your happiness all in one? Jane glanced at the ME beside her who was currently lost in her own thoughts. "How you doin'?" Their eye met and Jane smiled at Maura's dimples making a slight impression as the remainder of her features remained calm.

"Currently, I am very well, Jane."

She was glad to hear it. "You slept like a log."

Confusion wrinkled her nose. "A subpart of a felled tree trunk?" Jane's brows knitted humorously when she looked at her and it made the ME chuckle lightly. "That is not what you mean."

"No like.. Heavily."

"Not all logs are heavy."

"Yeah well you would have been a heavy one." They laughed. "You were snoring so loud—"

"—I was not snoring, Jane please."

"You totally were."

"Was not."

"How do you know?" Maura looked like she was going to answer her but Jane shook her head quickly. "No, don't tell me, it's probably weird."

Maura chuckled. "I slept well, yes." They'd leave it at that.

"You're not gonna get in trouble for missing that conference stuff today?"

"No, certainly not when it was an emergency."

"What'd you tell them?"

Maura cracked a small grin. "Well I most certainly did not lie."

Jane rolled back against the bed grinning with their hands to her chest. "Dear Sir or Madame" She began in an old wealthy British man's voice. "I, Sir Dr. Maura Isles will be unable to attend the medical whatitcalled conference hence forth. I am afraid I have knocked a tooth receptacle out of my darlings mouth, ta ta then." Maura's sudden laughter brought a warm feeling to her chest. "That's not how you send an email?" She asked peeking over at the other woman.

Maura was so amused her eyes threatened to water and her breath leapt out of her in waves. "I do not even know where to begin." She managed.

Jane laughed in return. "If that's not damn close to what you sent then I just don't know who you are anymore."

"That could not be farther from what I sent, Jane."

"Wow." Jane looked to the ceiling. "You think you know someone."

"I do not understand why you use that voice. That is hardly how I sound."

Jane let their joint hands fall between them. "Well Maura that's how I figure you sound in your head."

"As if I were an elderly English man?" Jane nodded. "You know I haven't given much thought to what your internal voice would sound like." They looked at each other and laughed.

"Don't you dare." The detective warned.

"I understand that you already have a rather fragile ego, so I won—"

"—What about my veneer?" Jane sat up to defend.

"Ego!" Maura was laughing.

"I'm not about to lie here with you talking all this crap you know."

Maura was grinning.. "You won't do anything." She shrugged.

Jane smirked. She was right. "Only cause I'd like to keep my other…" She paused and looked down to Maura. "How many teeth do I have? They tell you?"

"Have you had your wisdom teeth removed?" Jane nodded. "Twenty eight."

"Well, I'm gonna be pretty protective of my twenty seven others."

Maura laugh and sat up as well. "Jane."

"I know I know." She'd quit ragging on her. Maura had already been put through it enough this morning. Just then a loud buzzing came from Maura's side of the bed and the ME immediately recognized the custom heartbeat pattern as coming from her device. "That you?"

"Yes." She leaned over to retrieve it but frowned down at the little screen when she recognized the caller. "It's Hope."

Jane had to pee, so she was already getting out of bed. "Ma mentioned she called the house phone, answer it."

"Should I?"

Jane nodded as she padded toward the bathroom. "It might be a confession!" She called.

Maura rolled her eyes. "Jane!" She could just make out the other woman mumbling something under her breath before closing the bathroom door behind her. Maura looked back down to the device and took a half second more before answering it. "Dr. Isles."

"Maura, it's Hope Martin, how are you?" Came Hope's pleasant, yet overly formal greeting.

Maura glanced at the time on the refurbished to liken a modern grandfather clock dusplay in the corner in the room. It was already four o'clock in the afternoon. "I am well."

"Angela tells me you are in New York; I didn't know the trip was so soon."

"Yes." She nodded. "Jane and I have been here now for a few days."

"Jane went with you? How lovely. Is this a good time to speak?"

"Well actually, we had a bit of a late start so I'm afraid I'll I have to call you back."

"Yes, I understand." Hope paused. "Listen I wanted to apologize to you about our last dinner, I think I may have upset you."

Maura nodded to herself. "I think I may have been a little reactive."

"Shall we get tea when you return?"

"Yes, I would like that." They made tentative plans for the next week when Maura would be back in town before hanging up. Jane was walking back over to the bed rubbing her went hands off in her shirt.

"What'd Bio Mom want?" She asked opting to sit on the edge of the bed as opposed to getting back into it. She was suddenly filled with some energy and was starting to get hungry.

"She wanted to apologize."

"For assuming you only liked men?"

Maura chuckled; she had forgotten that she told Jane that. "No, I believe it is about MEND."

"That's good right?"

Maura rested her phone on the bed and shrugged. "I think so."

"You goinna do it? What was it? Chief of Medical Practices?"

"I intend to continue to volunteer." Then Maura shook her head no. "Do you know, I think I may enroll in that writers retreat in the Adirondacks instead. With the free time I have I would like to do something more creative."

"Oh yeah?" Maura hadn't spoken much about her writing recently and Jane was cautious about pointing it out. "The only thing scarier than going into the woods with a bunch of vegans, is going into the woods with a bunch of vegans to write murder mysteries."

"The fresh air will do wonders for my new skin regime, and some fasting from cholesterol dense food groups will be good. It's just that…"

Jane raised a brow. "You'd be the new kid?"

Maura nodded. "Precisely."

"Ah c'mon Maura, you've been talking about it since we went to that mystery writer's thing, with those creeps."

Maura got out of bed. "In my meditations for leaning into things that make me uncomfortable I think it will evoke some of my past insecurities with unknown social environments."

Jane stood and walked over to her. "Yeah, but that's the point, right? Too lean into that kind of stuff."

"It is." Maura nodded. "It doesn't make it any less unnerving." She smiled.

"You're the most popular person at work."

"I was arrested for murder and brought through the lobby."

Jane paused. "Yeah, yeah that happened… You also shut the building down when you thought your special coffee was a bomb… Alright so maybe you don't want to be that popular." She dependent and they both laughed. "Go, have fun, get away from our crazy for a little bit. I'll watch George and make sure no one puts silver in the dishwasher."

Maura smiled and touched her arm. "I may take you up on that. In the interim, shall we call Tasha? Are you feeling up for a show tonight?"

Jane nodded slowly. "What are we gonna tell her?" She whispered as if the young woman were in the room behind them.

Maura didn't seem to understand. "The truth of course." Jane looked skeptical. "That it was an accident and that your doctors are optimistic." Now the detective was shaking her head. "What is wrong with that?"

"Maura you punched me in the face while playing around… in bed."

Maura nodded quickly. "Yes that—"

"—is a bit too truthful—"

"—I don't want to say you got robbed Jane."

"Well what are we going to say then?" She put her hands on her hips. "You got us into this."

##

Tasha looked between the two suspiciously. "Come again?"

Jane and Maura glanced at each other. "Can you believe it?" Jane asked a little less rhetorically than she'd like.

Tasha shook her head and placed her hands on her jean clad hips. "No, the strike pattern is not consistent with a remote control." She looked over to Maura who was dressed nicely in a pencil thin skirt and a new looking turtleneck but avoiding all real eye contact. "I also don't think Maura is large enough to be able to make such a strike from across the room soo… what's up?"

"Hey she can break a guy's neck—" Jane offered.

"—Jane." Maura gave her a displeased look. Jane went back to looking at the ground. "We were in the emergency room all morning." Not a lie. "The doctors had to preform a root canal." Also not a lie.

Tasha looked between the two of them even more perplexed than before. She was excited to finally hear from them to make plans for the evening, but not excited to share the news that she was too far in the line to get the free Broadway tickets. So instead of Wicked, they were currently standing in the crowded lobby at The Grace Theatre for Preforming Arts in Chelsea waiting for the line to open at the box office. She noticed Jane's face immediately upon arrival and was being force fed a story about her accidentally getting hit in the face last night with the hotel room television remote and having an entire tooth pop out.

First of all it just didn't make sense. Jane was a hockey and baseball player and apparently a crack shot. The idea that Maura, who hardly participated in any throwing kind of sport could produce enough ballistic force that it would not only surprise Jane, but also hit her in the lip AND THEN also knock out her front tooth was just bullshit in a dress. But why would they lie? Maura was saying things that sounded factual, if her tooth came out they absolutely would need to go to an emergency room for a root canal, and judging by Jane's speech being ever so slightly slurred she imaged the woman was going through a moderate amount of discomfort, but… something wasn't right.

"So you guys were just watching tv...?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah, some movie."

"What was the name of the movie?"

Jane looked at Maura quickly. "Uh it was um, called eh Disobedience? Or something?" She looked at Maura again who was offering her an empathetic look.

Tasha raised a brow. "Disobedience?"

Jane nodded. "Sure," She couldn't remember what the hell the movie was called! Surely something provocative like that.

The young woman nodded slowly. "That's uh, interesting. A couple of friends and I just saw that…." She looked at Maura. "What did you think of the religious overtones juxtaposed to the lead's desire?"

Maura opened her mouth. "Yes it… Was fascinating." She touched Jane's arm and the detective shrugged her off and gave her a look that Tasha couldn't help but find a little comical. This was not going well for them. Maura, without offense took her hand away and held it at her side. "I am going to see what the holdup is, excuse me." She dipped her head and hurried off toward the box office.

Tasha watched Jane glare at the shorter woman's back before clearing her throat and crossing her arms. "What really happened?"

Surprised at that challenge Jane mirrored her stance. She may have been left out to dry but she was not going down that easy. "What Maura said happened."

Tasha nodded slowly. "You do know Disobedience is pretty racy, didn't take you two enjoy it much, though I guess if that's what you guys watch together it makes a lot of sense… "

"You're getting really close to that line, Tash."

She put her hands up. "I don't believe you guys, at all."

"You don't have to."

"You can't tell me what happened because it's still going on right?" She suddenly looked upset. "It's an open investigation and you think I can't handle it?"

Jane's features softened immediately. "Wha no.., no. " She shook her head. "You thought someone did this to me on purpose?" She pointed to her cut lip.

Tasha shrugged and fought the emotion off her face. "Why else would you guys make up a story like that? Or make it such a big deal?"

Jane let her arms drop. "Cause kid, it's. it's kind of embarrassing okay? I'm alright though, there is no open investigation or anything like that." She smiled softly. "Just two idiot adults." Seeing her features become relived one micro expression at a time reminded Jane of when they first met, and how hardened the teen had been. Then almost simultaneously it reminded her of the conversation they had right after Korsak's wedding. Jane had broken plans with her that very next day and explained that she couldn't tell her anything and she had better listen to what she said for her own safety. They hadn't talked for months after, and when they finally did Jane realized that in her own fear of what could happen to Tasha because of Alice Sans, she ended pushing her away. She forgot once again just how much truth the young woman before her could take. "I'm here on vacation, to spend time with you. Not running from anything back home alright?"

"So then… What happened?" Tasha had yet to uncross her arms, but she seemed less upset as a more matured part of her brain kicked in. "This have anything to do with… yknow. You and Maura?" Now she seemed concerned.

Jane stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Yeah.. It was an accident though."

She didn't take Maura to be abusive on any spectrum, but then that only left the story they were giving her which she still wasn't buying. "Were you guys fighting?"

Jane frowned. "No, no we weren't. We were…" She sighed heavily. "Sparing?"

"Sparing?" Tasha's brow quirked. "That's.. Kinky."

"Tasha." Jane growled. She was three shades red and not having any of it. "Officially over the line. Where do you learn this stuff?" It was harsh, which only made the young woman laugh a little and blush herself. "What are you going to college for?"

"My bad." She dismissed with a grand expression. It was just that she had spent all her time knowing Jane and Maura wondering what their deal was. It was about time they could talk like adults here. "So, I was right?" Jane nodded once. They both began to grin at the same time. "Who else knows?"

"No one." Tasha opened her mouth to say something and Jane cut her off. "Tasha, no one."

"Yeah alright I get it, big secrets—You do know though that it's pretty obvious, right? I mean no one is going to believe your remote-control story." She shook her head. "I'm actually a little disappointed in you guys."

Jane could hardly help the laugh caught in her throat as rubbed her cheek. "I don't wanna hear you talking like that okay?"

Tasha was full on smiling now. "Yeah, sure sure…. Congratulations."

Jane smiled at her and capped a sisterly arm on her shoulder. "Thanks.."

"So, when are you proposing?" Jane gripped her shoulder roughly enough to startle her, but nowhere near real pain. "Ay! Alright alright!"

The detective released her. "We're not talking about this."

"You can't tell me what to do, I'm an adult!"

Maura suddenly joined the group again and smiled at the two goofed expression on their faces as they separated from what she assumed was an embrace. "Aw, what did I miss?"

Jane tossed an arm around Tasha's shoulders in silent threat to the younger woman and began to lead her away. "Nothing, Traitor."

Maura laughed to herself and kept a few paces behind them feeling very pleased with herself when the doorman stopped both women and asked for their tickets. They turned expectantly toward her and the ME quickened her stride to meet them.

"I left because I knew you could handle it." She whispered to Jane as Tasha ventured ahead to find their seats as they entered the large sunken auditorium. Maura Isles wrapped her arm in Jane's as she took the steep steps down in her heels slowly.

"I don't trust you as far as I can throw you." She mumbled jokingly so no one else could hear.

Maura patted her arm affectionately. "I'll owe you." She promised with a sweetness that Jane couldn't help but chuckle at.

"Less talking, more walking."

Maura smiled to herself as Jane made no move to quicken their pace down the steps. "Yes, Ma'am."


	28. Chapter 28

Maura tossed her head back in hearty laughter.

"—So I'm sitting there two minutes into the exam when I realize—" Jane started laughing; seeing Maura in stitches was pretty hilarious never mind the situation. "—Maura c'mon, I'm trying to tell a story here!"

Maura put her glass of wine down in fear of spilling it on her new green and white dress she had seen and a window that very afternoon and purchased on a whim. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, go on."

Jane grinned. "So I'm sitting there trying to figure out what the hell I had eaten and then it came to—"

"—Do not tell me you ate from that street vendor across from the hotel." She gasped.

"Maura the damn kebobs smelled so good, plus I could hardly eat anything at that breakfast place, everything was hard and—"

"—Jane I personally saw him sneeze and then continue to make a sandwich. Does norovirus or hepatitis sound apet—"

"You never told me that!"

"I assure you, I have." She shook her head. "When we were talking about microscopic bacterial anomalies?" She motioned to the other woman. "The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did a study on—"

"Maura when have we ever talked about microscopic bacterial whatevers this week?" Or at all.

"Well I read about it and then I shared it with you." Jane shook her head. "At breakfast."

"Was this before or after you knocked my tooth out?" Jane asked reaching for her root beer.

"Before."

Jane shrugged. "Nah, sorry, best damn kebab I've ever had that's for sure, I didn't even spill any sauce on my suit."

"For such a violent gasto-intestinal reaction like the one you are describing it is highly likely that yoy consumed—"

"—Ah! Jesus, I was there you don't need to repeat it."

Maura shook her head again but smiled fondly across the table at her best friend. She had apparently put on a little make up for their dinner and the navy turtleneck she was wearing brought out the brightness in her dark eyes when she smiled. "Why do you do this to yourself?"

Jane smiled and shrugged again as she reached for her fork. "I feel fine now."

"I can tell you why."

Jane shook her head dramatically. "Please don't."

"So how was it? You haven't said how it was." The ME pushed as she reached for her own fork. There would be another conversation on eating from strange unaccredited street venders once she was able to gather the right data.

Tonight they were having dinner in Astoria, Queens, right near the water at a famous local Greek restaurant called Telly's Taverna. The dining room felt like someone's grandmother's living room with warm colored lighting and big round tables filled with families of all shapes and sizes enjoying themselves. With a serving of lemon and oil potatoes between them and juicy grilled fish the two ate well and talked excitedly about their days well into the night. It wasn't until they were leaving the restaurant and hailing a cab that the weight of reality fell upon them again and the pair grew quiet on the ride back to the hotel. At one point Jane lowered her window some and inhaled deeply as she relaxed against the cabs used leather seat before turning to Maura when she could smell the faintest dampness of promised rain.

"It's gonna rain." Jane announced.

Maura nodded in agreement. "Maybe."

She cracked a little grin. "Maybe?" The medical examiner leaned against her suddenly in a way that made the detective smile warmly and blush at the same time. "No information on wind speed or humidity?" Maura simply shook her head no. "No statistical aversion to microscope hydrogen carbon compounds around an electrode?"

The pathologist chuckled softly against her. "You're simply saying words now."

Jane hesitated before slipping her left hand from in between them and putting it around the blonde's shoulders. They looked at each other then and Jane offered a cute little shrug in explanation even though Maura's expression told her she didn't need one. "The day you stop saying words is the day I get worried."

Maura blinked. "Well I would imagine I would no longer be living."

Jane chuckled and then shifted some. "That'd be a hard day." Their eyes met again. "It's a good thing I'm dying one day before you though." She reminded.

Maura gave her an incredulous look hidden behind a smile. "Not for any other reason other than to not have to go on a boat and carry out my final wishes."

Jane nodded quickly. "Yep, you're on your own." Maura pinched her side. "Hey!"

##

As a thin line of morning light made its direct path from behind the heavy hotel curtains across her waist and onto the opposite wall Jane Rizzoli woke with the troubling realization that the day had indeed come.

Today was their final day in New York City.

The detective stretched against the stiffened comfort of their expensive bedsheet and sighed lightly to herself as she watched the patch of light with a mild curiosity. A week had come and gone and for the life of her she couldn't recall why they had decided it would be enough time. It was hardly enough, she wanted to wake up this morning and spend it like the last; lazing about, ordering room service in her pajamas with her best friend. She wanted to pick somewhere to eat solely based on the name of restaurant, or how cute the table settings were. Jane Rizzoli wanted to rent bikes again, and then sit and watch the sunset over the Hudson River with Maura's hand clasped over her own again.

The logical side of her knew that doing these things were not mutually secluded to the city that never slept, but they were made possible to her here first, and she wasn't sure how they fit into life in Boston. Then on top of everything waiting back home Jane worried she wouldn't be able to say the right thing when the time came to explain what the ME meant to her and what this time meant for them. It had been very personal, intimate, and she wanted with all her power for that to continue without interruption, because even though they had had some very difficult conversations, and even though she had technically lost a tooth in the process, Jane Rizzoli could not think of one single place anywhere that she would rather be than where she was right now.

"We never did go to the gentleman's club." The voice was soft and reflective coming from over a pillow away.

They had been sleeping together in the same bed for the past three nights now.

After Jane's emergency room visit, and what at first was guised as medical observation now just plain out was. Neither woman really found it necessary to bring up why.

Jane chuckled softly at the comment as she was lifted from her thoughts. "We can still go." She moved a blanket aside to see Maura's bright hazel eyes staring at her from behind a limp bun of blonde hair. "The night is still young." She rasped.

Maura exhaled in amusement. "It is seven in the morning." She watched Jane stretch before continuing, it was something Maura found endearing considering how tall the other woman was and how her limbs seemed to spread in uncoordinated directions. "Good Morning."

The detective moved over a little closer to her and tucked her arm under her own pillow to get comfortable. "Morning." She motioned to the pillows between them. It wasn't how they had slept before, but apparently Maura's neck had been bothering her and she had built the ultimate nestling station to relieve the tension from her neck while she slept against gravity. Jane just figured she wanted to build a castle, cause that's how extensive this system was. "You sleep okay all the way over there?"

Maura's eyes were teasing now. "I am not even two feet away from you."

Jane grinned softly. "Well y'know, it seemed you had a process going. I didn't want to intrude."

Maura's smile faded into a softness as her cheekbones thinned her cheeks. "You could have." It made Jane blush at the ears.

"Aye." She warned. "No flirting."

Maura chuckled quietly as her cheeks flushed as well. "Oh, excuse me. My apologies."

Jane adjusted her pillow again. "You're excused."

"How long do you suppose until everyone suspects something?" Maura asked curiously after a few moments of enjoying the moment in silence. She was cautious of her brain disregarding reason and leaping to wild rationalizations just to be near the other woman. It had to be monitored more stringently when they returned. It would be too obvious if not.

She practiced by not reaching out to move aside a thick black curl threatening to fall into Jane's line of sight.

"I don't know, I'm hoping not before we tell them." Jane sighed. "Not with all this other crap going on that's for sure." Maura nodded and adjusted her pillow to mirror Jane's comfortable lounge. "You're still okay talking about that some other time?" She glanced at the blonde a little unsure but relaxed when Maura nodded and met her gaze.

"I think it's for the best." Both women shared the sentiment that they wanted some more time to explore things on their own, and with news of Frank's condition, Jane's work arrangements getting ready to change, and Maura's ever changing, they wanted to make sure they themselves had a bit more stable ground.

"You'll tell me when you don't think so anymore?" She didn't want Maura to walk around feeling like she were living a lie, but she also was not anywhere near ready tell her family about the changes between them.

"I will."

Jane nodded to herself. "First things first when we get back is getting Nina's desk back." She had apparently been "relocated" to ensure the FBI's lead tech Candice Roadhouse had ample "surface room."

Maura sighed. "Yes." Her tone almost professional now. "I truly wonder what is going on."

"There all run a little ragged. I spoke to Korsak yesterday and even he is annoyed."

"Sargent Detective Korsak seldom exhibits symptoms of over activity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis."

Jane rubbed sleep from her eyes with an amused huff. "Maura."

"Too early?"

"Yeah, too early." She finished rubbing her face. "Let's talk about something else."

Her dimples flared. "What do you prefer we discuss at this hour?"

"Mm." Jane hummed as she grabbed the largest pillow between them with a little smirk. "I wanna talk about how we can get all these pillows out of the way."

Maura found it hard not to smile at her. Jane's voice was of pure mischievousness. "Oh, they're in your way?"

"All night they were in my way, Maura." She groaned as she chucked the sleeping utensils over the side of the bed like she had every single morning Maura tried to make up the bed that she refused to get out of. "I could barely move!"

Maura pointed at her as she got closer. "You're making the bed today."

"I'm not making a hotel bed, this place should give us new beds every morning with how much it was." She tossed another pillow over her shoulder.

"You're making the bed."

Now that the path had been cleared between them Jane gingerly inched her pillow close to Maura's before laying down on it and closing her eyes. "You'd have to hold me at gun point."

"You've disrupted me morning routine all week." She defended only to notice Jane begin to smile more with her eyes closed. "You're proud?"

Jane popped an eye open, Maura was smiling too. "A little." The ME feigned annoyance as she moved to lay on her back and then turned away from Jane completely. "Maauraa." The detective dragged out with a thickness still in her voice from sleep.

"I am ignoring you." She fought a small and unexpected bout of laughter when she felt the pillow under her own head being tugged away. "Jane!" She warned.

Jane sighed dramatically before she scooted closer to the to the other woman and unearthed her right arm from under her pillow so she could wrap it around Maura's upper torso under her breasts just the way she had learned Maura liked to be held most. "Alright, I'll make the bed." The detective mumbled sweetly.

Maura sank back into her best friend and smiled to herself. "I should be suspicious." She thought aloud and could feel the small rumble of muted laughter in Jane's chest pressed against her back. "But I suppose I will have to have faith."

Jane snuggled closer behind her eliminating all space between them. "What does the evidence suggest?"

Feeling the warmth of her breath at the nape of her neck caused Maura to shiver slightly. "That you won't do it."

Jane chuckled again. "I will I will."

"Hm." They fell silence for a long time just enjoying the feeling of being this close after so long. Neither could get over how amazingly natural the intimate embrace felt.

"Are you ready?" Maura finally asked the silent room. She knew Jane was gradually becoming more and more awake with the steadiness of her breath and how the detective buried her face some as if to fight the inevitable.

"I'm gonna need some coffee first." Jane mumbled near Maura's neck again. "Maybe a shot." Maura's silent laughter made Jane smile. "You?"

The ME took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yes." She nodded and looked over her shoulder at Jane who picked her head up. "I had a lovely time though."

"Me too, Maur." She blushed a little at the thought of their relationship changing so much in the past week. "Next time we take two weeks."

Maura's features brightened. "I will hold you to that, Detective."

They laid in bed spooning for another half hour or so before Maura excused herself for the restroom. Jane reluctantly let her go and then rolled onto her back to enjoy the last few moments of peace and quiet before life truly began again. She had so many feelings swimming about within her, and she knew all of them were valid. It was now time to fish them out one by one and make sure they all got her attention, and that's how she'd plan the day.

Beginning with the end in mind Jane rolled over to her side of the bed and reached for her cell phone. Maura had turned on the shower, a subtle message to Jane that they were indeed getting up now. After finding the number she was looking for Jane sat up and cleared her throat as the dial tone rang out twice.

"Hello?"

"Ma it's me."

Angela put down her cup of coffee. She had been awake now for an hour or so just sitting thinking about her family. "Hi honey, wow, you're up early."

Jane huffed quietly and glanced to where Maura had been laying. "Maura runs a tight ship." Her mother only chuckled and made an amused noise as if to agree from her own personal experience. "What are you doing?"

"Just sitting with some coffee. What do you want for dinner tomorrow night?"

Jane shrugged. "Gnocchi."

Angela huffed again. Every time she asked Jane always had the same response. "What about tonight?" When are you girls getting in?"

Jane glanced at the clock in the corner of the hotel suite. "We're gonna try and leave after getting lunch with Tasha one last time, but y'know traffic, late probably."

"Well I'll make something light then."

Jane thanked her. "How's your head?"

"Are you calling to check up on me?"

Jane rubbed gently at her less swollen jaw. "I've been thinking about what we talked about… with Pop." She could hear her mother sigh gently. It was a new sort of sound, Jane thought it sounded tired, unable even, and it worried her that her own mother, a woman so full of life and love and energy could make such a noise. "I don't want you to think that I don't support you, Ma. I'm just…"

"You're conflicted honey. I know what it's like to feel that way."

Jane nodded to herself. "Alright, as long as you know that." There was a small pause. "… So when is the next visit?" The fact that he had not decided if he wanted treatment or not was something she couldn't get out of her head.

"Not until Tuesday."

"Well alright.." She picked at the fabric of the bed. "How are you getting there? Ron?"

Angela was quiet a moment. "I could use a ride there."

"Well I'll take you." Jane jumped at the opportunity. Work would be crazy but she wanted her mother not to have to go through all of it alone.

"Oh honey you don't—"

"I want to."

Angela nodded again to herself. "Okay." Her heart swelled for her daughter. Jane had always been such a good girl despite her restlessness. She wondered if Jane remembered the time that she took her to the doctor when she was six. The family car had broken down and was at the shop, so she and Jane got on the bus and headed there that way. At the end of the trip Jane took off her shoes at the front door and announced that when she was older she was going to drive her mother around any where she wanted to go. She then took off to chase Frankie down the hall who had just gathered the know how to wobble on his own let alone run. "Do you remember taking the bus with me when you were little?" She interrupted Jane saying something.

Jane furrowed a brow. "What's that got to do with the Feds?" She had been filling her mother in BPD happenings in explanation for not seeing Frankie or Nina around as much.

Angela picked up her coffee cup. "Oh! How did your big test go?"

Jane sighed and glanced over at the closed bathroom door. She hadn't shared with Maura her recent thoughts on her position with the FBI and didn't want her to overhear something and misunderstand. "It went really good, they said that everything from here on should be a breeze."

"My daughter, a big shot FBI agent."

Jane chuckled despite her frustration with the older woman. "Ma I won't be an agent; I'd just be lecturing."

"Well whatever, it's still amazing honey."

"Thanks, Ma."

"Thank God you're not going up there to live, away from everyone? Could you imagine what getting a frozen lasagna would be like?" Jane imagined she'd never had a frozen lasagna in her life. They talked for a but more about normal things. Angela wanted to know how the weather was there, Jane wanted to know if Tommy had stopped by with TJ recently. "Now I know you want me to butt out but—"

"See Ma, that should be a hint that I'm not going to hear whatever you have to say next."

Angela ignored her. "I went by the station to bring Frankie and Nina some spaghetti, you know a little something since they've been working so much." Jane said nothing "and I met this Davies fellow."

Jane narrowed her gaze at the area in the wall where the luxury flat screen slid down from. "Why?" She asked harsher than really intending to.

"Well he was there Jane what did you want me to do? Be rude?"

She sighed. "Ma c'mon. I thought I sa—"

"So I invited him to Sunday dinner—"

"What!?" Jane sat up quickly. "You didn't… Ma tell me you didn't."

"I thought you liked him?"

Jane growled. "What part of butt out and leave it alone says I like him!?"

"Well I can't un invite him, honey—and what about Joseph Grant, isn't that what you told me about him? You know I saw his mother—"

Jane stood from the bed and began to pace with the phone to her ear. "Yes you can and yes you will, Ma c'mon. It's enough I gotta work with him with the Feds and on my case at BPD, and Maura does—"

"Maura likes him too?"

Jane paused. "What!?"

"Oh…" Angela nodded to herself. "That complicates things." Jane swore under her breath. "What did you just say?"

"Nothing Ma. Nothing, just uninvite him."

"I don't have his number." She reasoned.

Jane felt like pulling her hair out. "How do you invite someone over—to not even your own home by the way— and not have their phone number Ma?"

"I don't know why you are getting so agitated honey, It's just dinner here and—"

"Why can't you just mind your own business!?"

"You are my business, excuse me for not wanting my only daughter to die alone."

Jane huffed at how quickly she could turn on the drama. "Ma!"

"You and Maura need to talk it out if you both like him, he's seems very nice, but it's not worth you girls getting into another big thing about." Angela sat back with her coffee and nodded at her advice. "You two have been through much more than some guy, Anyway wasn't Maura seeing somoni anyway?"

Jane sat back down on the bed with her head in her hand. "Sometimes I wish I were adopted."

"Don't you say that. Do you know what—"

Jane exhaled slowly in efforts to calm herself down as Angela went on. "Ma…Ma." She interrupted. "I'm hanging up"

"I'll make gnocchi."

Jane nodded and hung up the phone. She sat there momentarily stupefied at how things always happened to her. Now what? Her plans to talk to her brothers about their father had to take a momentary backseat so she could run proper interference from Davies getting any ideas about this being some kind of gestures to rekindle things, and to make matters worse her mother thought she and Maura both liked him. While she on some level did or at least found him attractive enough to sleep with she was pretty certain Maura rather not have anything to do with him.

Especially now that they were…

Monogamous.

It was almost like inviting Jack to dinner randomly.

Just the thought made Jane feel a surge of upset muddled with annoyance. She had no idea what it would feel like now to sit across from the guy who used to have sex with Maura and she didn't want to put Maura though finding out either.

Just as Jane was about to call Davies and uninvite him herself the bathroom door opened and Jane looked up to find Maura stepping out with a thin hotel towel wrapped around her body and darkened wet hair sticking to her neck.

"I believe water pressure is severely under valued in Boston. State legislation has a municipal—oh," Maura froze when she noticed Jane sitting on the foot of the hotel bed staring directly at her. Perhaps this may have been a step too familiar.

"…Yeah." Jane swallowed trying to level her suddenly heavy chin so she could look at the ME's face and not her legs or the soft beads of water that slid down them.

Maura began to blush. "I just needed to grab my blow dryer."

Jane nodded quickly and cleared her throat. "Yeah it's um…" She had no idea where her goddamn blow dryer was. "Somewhere here." But she stood and tossed her cell phone on the bed behind her as she tried to be helpful by fumbling through some drawers she had seen Maura open before when doing her hair.

"Jane that—" Jane's eyes widened a little when she opened a particular drawer to find very colorful and lacy lingerie innocently looking back up at her. Maura held back a chuckle as she tried to finish her sentence. "…I don't believe I put it in there."

"No." Jane nodded as sensibly as she could under the current circumstances. She closed the drawer quickly and opened another. "I don't know why you unpacked everything like you're moving in." She criticized out of pure flustratiion.

Maura was smiling. "I do not like to live out of my suitcase."

Jane waved a hand at her underwear drawer. "Well it's just anyone can y'know…Room service or…" She opened another drawer and sighed with relief when she found the ME's blow-dryer with its cord rolled up neatly against it. "Here." Maura came over to her and they both looked at each other as Jane handed it over.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They stared at each other a second more before Maura dipped her chin slightly. "Can you take a look when we return?" She raised a brow subtly. "I don't think the unit has been properly serviced in some time."

Jane's mouth went dry. "At…" If her brain was ever going to earn it's keep around here it needed to start acting and now. "Your water pressures?"

Maura nodded slowly never letting Jane's eyes go. "Yes."

"I can take a look at it." Jane nodded a few times. "…Yeah."

"Wonderful." The intensity of her gaze lightened as she smiled at Jane's expression and turned to head back toward the suite's bathroom.

Jane watched her and her towel leave before looking around the room a little lost.

What had she even been doing?

##

TJ giggled at the reluctant grin on his father's face as he wriggled around reciting his favorite Saturday morning cartoon theme song as he was being helped into his tiny sweatpants.

Tommy shook his head. "C'mon now, enough dancin' your mom is gonna kill me if I don't have you ready by the time she shows up." He stilled the younglings hips with a simple movement and TJ giggled more. "If you don't stop dancin' I'm gonna have to tickle you again." He threatened in a deeper voice.

"No!" TJ continued his jig while looking up at his father with playful eyes.

"And I'm callin' Uncle Frankie to help me and your auntie Janie to help me too!" The boy stilled immediately not so tough now are ya huh?" Tommy laughed a little.

"I'm too wittle to tickle all of you back Daddy." TJ reasoned.

Tommy nodded thoughtfully as he was finally able to adjust his waistband properly. "You got a real point there little man."

TJ stood in between his father's legs holding onto his knees as he patiently waited to be let go. For a moment, father and son shared a silent exchange before curiosity got the best of the youngest Rizzoli. "Daddy when I'm gonna give Auntie Mauwa her book?"

Tommy laughed as he sat upright to find the little boy's socks he had just sat beside himself in preparation. "When she comes back from New York, Bud."

"When's dat?"

"Sunday I think—"

"—Sunway!?"

"You even know what day of the week that is?"

TJ grew thoughtful. No, he wasn't one hundred percent. "Not weally."

"Well it's soon, alright? Lift these little piggies."

TJ lifted his left foot to help it into his sock. "Bu…I wan show Auntie Mawra my new books too." Somehow he wasn't sure that'd be possible at this rate, Sunday could be next year for all he knew, and he already lost one of them at school.

"Well you can't show her now 'cause she's not here TJ." Tommy explained patiently as he worked.

"Bu-how come?"

He sighed in relief when the second sock took seconds less than the first. If they continued at this pace, he'd be ready for Lydia to swing by to take him to daycare. "—Cause Buddy they wanted to go somewhere and have adventures." Suddenly the front door knocked. "Alright that's your Ma huh? Remember what I said?"

TJ grinned and nodded happily. "I'm gon' be good."

"Alright thanks dude." Tommy jumped up from his son's height and quickly took stock of his appearance. He checked his breath and straightened out his shirt as he approached the door and tried not to look as tired as he truly was. Kids were hard work, and he had actual work in about an hour. How did people have more than one of these?

Lydia Sparks smiled timidly when the door opened. She was clad in her Penny Saver uniform; a hideous skirt, stocking, and blouse get-up with big pockets and funny imperfect box faces dancing around her name tag. To Thomas Rizzoli though, she could have been wearing a box for all he cared, she was smiling at him, and it felt like getting to eat ice cream before dinner.

"Hi Tommy."

"Hi… Lydia." Was what he managed out.

She dipped her chin almost shyly. "Can I come in?"

"Wha in here?" He tossed a thumb over his shoulder. "I uh.. no I didn't think you'd wanna so I didn't… it's not the cleanest place y'know two men living here and all…" He cleared his throat. "Yeah yeah." He stepped aside and watched as TJ bolted up from the play carpet in the living room where he was sitting fiddling with his dinosaur backpack and watching his parents intently.

"Mommy!"

"Oh Hi honey!" Lydia gushed as she immediately dropped to her knees to receive his hug. "You've gotten so big!"

TJ giggled at all the little kisses she was planting on his face. "No I didn't!"

Tommy closed the door behind them and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You want a chocolate milk or something?"

She looked up at him from her spot on the ground with their toddler's arms still wrapped around her neck. "Ok."

Tommy nodded and quickly made his way into his cramped kitchen and opened the refrigerator to find it mostly empty besides a four-pack case of Pedialyte and some leftover noodles he made TJ the other night for dinner. "Damn." He cursed before checking in a cabinet and finding the boxed chocolate milk case sitting tipped over with two cartons left in it. He quickly grabbed them and made his way triumphantly into the living room. "Maura was telling me about these for TJ, lots of soy and stuff."

Lydia was still seated on the ground with their son but she smiled at Tommy again. "Soy? I thought it was made of silk?"

Tommy shrugged but then chuckled when he caught TJ trying to shrug his little shoulders in a similar fashion. "Hey copycat."

Lydia took the warm box of soy chocolate milk from his outstretched hand and regarded their son. "He wants to do everything you do." She looked over at Tommy. "Hopefully not everything."

Tommy shifted. "Yeah…"

"Mommy let me open for you!"

Lydia handed the little boy the milk cartoon and stood to sit beside Tommy on the couch. "How are the meetings?"

He nodded some. "Good, good… you know all that talking has me thinking and… it's good." Lydia studied him carefully in an expression that made her look a little ill, but mostly concerned around the eyes. "I mean now.." Tommy looked back to his hands. "Now I gotta find a new place to go to, cause of this thing with Pop."

Lydia scooted back into the sofa and looked ahead as well. TJ was still trying to figure out the chocolate milk box straw's plastic wrapping. "You know that I didn't—" She began.

"—I know." They looked at each other. "I know that," Tommy nodded. "That's why I didn't say anything to you."

"I didn't know what to think, Tommy. When I got that message… I was afraid if you found out that you would…."

"Start drinking again?" He looked at her squarely. "I told you 'bout that Lydia." He motioned to TJ. "He's too important to me."

The room fell quiet for a long time as the two looked at one another, the smallest of sounds of plastic and toddler noises passed between them before Lydia blushed some. Tommy had the most intense eyes; she hardly knew what to do underneath their gaze. This was a serious question though, one that she had rehearsed on the way over six times; there was no more room for mistakes, no more room for apologies.

"Am I still important to you, Tommy?"

"I love you..." He cleared his throat a little and looked back to their son playing. "That aint never going to change."

Lydia looked at her hands. "I need to be sure you mean it Tommy Rizzoli." She had already been down this road with her mother, she was not going to do it again, _could not_ do it again. "You… can't just say things like that and not mean it."

Tommy looked over at her features, and noticed with a heaviness, that they looked saddened to hear his confession. "Whatever it takes to show you." He waited for her to look at him. "I can be… " He swallowed hard not expecting a sudden surge of emotion wrestle within him. "Important to you too. If you let me try."

##

"Can we ensure that this perimeter here is covered?" Cameron motioned to a map of lower Boston and nodded at his peers. "I just have a feeling there is something there we haven't seen."

"What if we are triangulating this incorrectly?" A meek looking man with an FBI lanyard around his neck and a windbreaker on spoke up. "Perhaps this unsub met our recruit somewhere here." He motioned the butt of his dry erase marker to another water front neighborhood not too far away, "I know it doesn't match victimology of the murders but whoever has the brains enough to organize such an operation has to have had some higher education, the mean in this area of Boston is a Master's degree."

"Zepp's got a point." Another spoke up.

Davies nodded. "Good, let's break apart to—hold on." Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Jane's younger brother walking down the hall toward the elevators with Segment Detective Korsak. "Detective Rizzoli!" He called from the huddle of agents.

Korsak and Frankie stopped and looked at one another before Frankie made his way over to the huddle. "What's up?"

"You grew up in Dorchester, right?"

"Revere." Frankie looked between Davies and the other special agents and then nodded. "Not too far off though, down there by Liberty avenue, why?"

"Well I need help, and I think it might be a good idea to get the lay of the land from a native. Will you ride with me to our last crime scene? We may be able to get a better radius and faster with you behind the wheel."

"Yeah…" he agreed suspiciously. "Korsak and I were going to head into Southie but… I can take you around I guess." He pointed at the gaggle of agents standing behind Davies now giving him the once over. "They coming too?"

Davies chuckled and shook his head no. "Give me five minutes?"

##

Maura watched Jane pump gas into their rental car fondly from behind rolled up windows. She looked as if she had been holding in how tired she was, and in a perceived moment of solitude finally let her facial muscles relax into their age as she watched the prices on the digital screen tick upward as she filled the car with fuel.

There intension was to have already been home by now, but the two had made the decision to forgo an early arrival home for a few more hours of vacation. After getting breakfast in Soho and walking around the city sight seeing they took a train into Queens again to visit The Museum of the Moving Image and have lunch with Tasha at an Indian restaurant she had been raving about a few days before. After that they had to pick up Maura's case of wine at the Union Square Farmer's Market, and then grab the rental car. They hadn't left the hotel until late in the evening and by that time both women had joked that they needed a nap. It was now a quarter to midnight, and they were stopping one last time to fill the tank up with gas before getting into Boston proper.

Maura opened the door just enough to startle Jane into looking at her as she pumped gas. "The University of Waterloo conduced a study last year that promotes the idea that standing for thirty minutes out of each hour promotes healthy bones and cardiovascular function." The doctor explained as she slipped out of the vehicle and wrapped her arms around herself as the eager night chill she had previously been immune to surprised her.

"Maura you're gonna freeze." Jane tried as the ME came to stand where she was pumping gas.

"Would you like me to drive the remainder of the way?" She waved away Jane shrugging out of her jacket. "You seem tired."

Jane nodded in thanks as she removed the gas pump nozzle from their sedan. "I know you don't like driving at night." She returned the nozzle to the pump.

"It is only because my visual acuity is at it's best with natural light."

Jane was putting her credit card in her wallet now. "Maybe I just need a coffee."

"What time do you want to return the rental?"

"I would have liked to turn it in when we got in." Maura was already shaking her head at the plan. "I know." Jane motioned to the small convenience store beside the gas station. "You need anything?"

"I'll come with you."

"To stop me from ordering coffee?" Jane joked as she checked to make sure the car was locked.

"To purchase water and use the restroom." She gave Jane a look and the detective smiled. "I've retired the idea that you will take any advice regarding your caffeine consumption four years ago."

Jane chuckled to herself. "If I didn't have coffee in my life Maura I don't know what I'd be doing. It's the Italian in me." She defended as they walked the graveled path toward the well lit "Food Shoppe". Jane stepped a half pace ahead when a balding man with several biker gang affiliation tattoo stepped out of the convenience store and eyed them before lighting his cigarette.

"Do you know him?" Maura asked in whisper before they crossed paths.

Jane shook her head no as she stepped to Maura's left to put herself between them. "Seems like he knows me though." As they approached the front of the Food Shoppe Jane made no sign of fear by staring directly at the older man and the biker made no effort to avert his eyes either.

"Nice night." He commented between drags of his Newport once the two came into earshot. "Where you and your little blonde headed to?"

"No where with you. Keep it moving Buddy." Jane answered as she let Maura pass her to head into the store.

The biker took another long drag from his cigarette and smiled a toothless smile at Jane. "Bet I could show you girls a good time, strap on not included." He grabbed his groin with his free hand and Jane sneered.

Jane glared at the biker. "Watch your mouth." She growled suddenly, arage boiling under her skin within seconds.

The biker chuckled before spitting on the ground directly beside Jane and squaring up his stance to directly match hers. He was significantly taller than her and had a frame that best could be described as truck like. "Or what?"

"Jane." Maura was holding the convenient store door open. "It isn't worth it."

Jane glanced behind her before giving the biker one more dirty look before turning her back to him and joining Maura at the entrance. Behind them she could make out the biker throwing one last vulgar cheap shot before the bell attached to the door closing rang him out. Without acknowledging Maura's worried look Jane ignored her and made her way toward the coffee pot in the corner of the bodega and began making herself a coffee. Maura straightened up and watched the taller woman's posture a moment before deciding to let it slide. After a rather dubious examination of the facilities toilets but having no other option Maura returned to the floor in a state mild distress to find Jane sipping a coffee and looking at baseball cards incased in the display window underneath the assorted candy stand. She had lost her entire collection in the fire Alice Sans fire but hadn't showed any interest in rebuilding it. Maura wouldn't know where to begin if she were to even surprise the other woman, but at least this was some sort of evidence she would appreciate the gesture.

"Ready?" The detective asked when she looked up to find Maura applying another coat of hand sanitizer to her hands.

"Yes." As they left Maura noticed Jane scan the parking lot for the biker. "He really upset you." She observed genuinely surprised.

Jane looked over at her as they neared the rental. "I didn't like what he said, Maura that's all." She was hoping it would be enough.

"Because it was about needing an artificial phallus?"

Jane unlocked the car with the key fob once they were a few feet away and got into the driver's seat with her coffee. "Sure." It was curt and whether she intended it or not it jabbed the air between them.

"It was grotesque." Maura agreed as she got into the passenger seat and immedicably reached for her shawl to place over her shoulders while the car's heater adjusted to being turned on. "it isn't like you to let other's words bother you like this."

Jane had put her coffee down between them and was buckling her seatbelt. "Guy's lucky I wasn't on duty."

"And then what would you have done? Arrested him for harassing us?"

Jane was in the middle of exhaling. "Yeah." Maura chuckled. "It's not funny Maura." She retorted sharply which earned them both a heavy silence.

"What is the matter, Jane?" Maura asked pointedly.

Jane pit both hands on the wheel and shook her head at herself. Maura was right she could get a little involved, but that usually only pertained to her work. Usually she'd let stuff like this just roll off her shoulders, because she had prospective. "I'm tired." She answered before looking over at her best friend. "He had no right to talk about you like that, not in front of me."

Maura nodded slowly to show she was trying to understand. "He won't be the only person with an opinion on what we do or do not do." Jane looked out her own window a moment as she processed. She didn't like this feeling, She didn't like the swell of discomfort reality brought to her gut. Jane was used to reality, in homicide you saw every dark corner of it's face, but this discomfort was different. This took the brightest part of her day, her intimate most feelings, and made them a mockery, and she didn't like it. "You need to be able to be comfortable with that." Maura added.

"How am I going to be comfortable with some asshole grabbing his junk in front of you?" She rose an eyebrow at the ME. "Seriously?"

"What I mean is that you have to be clear that this a classic expression of heteronormative insecurities and this person's particular mindset, but it most certainly is not mine, or yours, or anyone who's opinion we truly value."

Jane started the car. "Yeah well maybe I'm not that evolved." She muttered. "He's lucky he walked away with all four of his teeth."

The last hour of the drive was spent in silence.

By the time Jane pulled up to Maura's front door it was one thirty in the morning, her leg muscles had grown tight from inactivity and her mind was fuzzed by too much caffeine and a lack of sleep. She put the car in park, unbuckled her seatbelt, and tilted her head back against the head rest as she rubbed her eyes. "Maura wake up, we're here." She yawned into her hands before bringing them lazily to her lap. "Maura." Jane looked over to her right. When she got no response. Maura was curled up against the door fast asleep. The ride back wasn't exactly what she was hoping for them, and instead of apologizing for being so knuckle headed over some random biker she sat stubbornly in her position and let too much time pass before saying what she really felt. Jane reached down to the floorboard where the ME's shawl had fallen off her lap and put it back where it had been before resting a hand on Maura's leg and shaking it a little. "Maura." Maura opened her eyes and immodesty found Jane's. Their hazel confusion made the detective smile a little. "We made it to Toronto in time to check in." She tried seriously. They hadn't wanted to leave the city at all and when the time had finally come Maura proposed Canada instead of Boston in time to catch the annual Neuroscience Expo being hosted there this week.

"We're in Canada?" She asked cutely before blinking and looking around at their surroundings. "This looks like my street, in Boston."

Jane pulled her hand away and nodded. "Yeah huh? I guess I missed a turn somewhere." Maura looked over at her and they smiled gently at one another. "Sorry for being an ass." She shared softly. Maura adjusted herself to sit up some. "It's…" She shrugged. "Hard to explain."

"Would you like to try?"

Jane exhaled. "Remember how we said things were familiar, and that that was good?" Maura nodded. "Some things… are not at all and I guess…I guess I needed a moment to figure out how I'd react to stupid stuff like that."

"You've never reacted like that before."

Jane nodded. "Never felt that way before either."

Maura sat up fully as her brain examined the situation again. "Has my value somehow changed?" She asked without intention, she was genuinely curious. Jane had always been quick to defend her family and friends, and yes at times she could lose a bit of her cool, but she was a passionate woman. Earlier Maura knew that something viscerally was wrong, and that the detective was even surprised at how quickly she wanted to throttle the biker, she was uncomfortable in her anger and Maura wanted to know why.

Jane took her time to respond. "I dunno Maura, you've always been one of the most important people to me.." She shied up. "Now I guess that's a little different right?"

The ME nodded. "I feel very safe with you." She touched Jane's arm. "A man with below average standards of hygiene and anatomically inaccurate skeletal tattoos doesn't change that."

Jane let out an amused breath. "I was worried." She joked.

Maura smiled back. "A part of me believes you were."

They settled into a comfortable space again and Jane let herself relax fully into her seat before considering an alternative scenario. "If he touched you—"

Maura let her head roll against the head rest to look at her best friend. Jane's soulful brown eyes were playful but her jaw was set in seriousness. "Permission granted to break a proximal phalange."

"I'm hoping that means face in Latin."

Maura smiled "It doesn't."

 **AN: Oh man, this chapter was so the drama to upload. Let's just say that due to technical difficulties I've had to re-write this chapter completely by memory at least once. Then Maura was all wrong, and then Jane was all wrong, and then that meant I had to re-watch season three. (One of my favorite seasons of the show) Anyway not the longest of updates but I hope you're all still here and all still enjoying. Please review!**

 **KathleenDee**


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